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Using hot-vapor bypass for pressure control in distillation columns

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DOI: 10.1016/j.cjche.2017.07.023

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CJCHE-00907; No of Pages 8
Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/CJChE

Process Systems Engineering and Process Safety

Using hot-vapor bypass for pressure control in distillation columns

Stefano Ciannella, Arthur Siqueira Damasceno, Ícaro Cazé Nunes, Gilvan Wanderley de Farias Neto,
Wagner Brandão Ramos ⁎, Romildo Pereira Brito
Department of Chemical Engineering, Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande 58109-970, Paraíba, Brazil

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Distillation column control is widely explored in literature due to its complexity and importance in chemical and
Received 22 February 2017 petrochemical industries. In this process, pressure represents one of the most important variables to be
Received in revised form 25 July 2017 controlled. However, there are few studies about how pressure affects the dynamic behavior of distillation
Accepted 31 July 2017
columns and most research on distillation column control involve direct manipulation of cooling fluid through
Available online xxxx
the condenser. Nevertheless, such an approach demands constant changes in cooling fluid flowrates that
Keywords:
are commonly by the order of tons per hour, which can be difficult to work or even unfeasible in a real plant.
Distillation Furthermore, this strategy is usually avoided, as it can cause fouling and corrosion acceleration. The hot-vapor
Pressure control bypass strategy fits well as a solution for these issues, eliminating the need to dynamically manipulate cooling
Hot-vapor bypass fluid flowrates in the condensation unit. This work presents the modeling and simulation of a conventional
distillation column for the separation of water and ethanol, in which a comparative study between a conventional
pressure control and a control using hot-vapor bypass was performed. The main results were obtained through
dynamic simulations which considered various disturbances in the feed stream, and demonstrated superior
performance by the hot-vapor bypass system over the usual scheme proposed in literature, while evaluating
the Integral Absolute Error (IAE) norm as the control performance index.
© 2017 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction and Problem Definition pressure is tightly controlled, but overall pressure dynamics and their
effect on the column behavior are not well understood [2].
The study and development of efficient control structures for specific In fact, there are few studies about how pressure affects the dynamic
variables of a distillation system, meaning mainly a column's top behavior of distillation columns and their control system. An efficient
pressure and temperature, are of extreme importance to reduce the control of a column's top pressure in a distillation unit can minimize
effect of potential disturbances which may occur during the operation potential compensations in temperature throughout its operations
of any distillation column, whether coming from changes in nominal due to disturbances or relevant noise, as well as preventing flooding
conditions or failures in upstream or downstream processes that are within the column [3]. A fair number of configurations for pressure
directly or indirectly connected to the main separation unit. control in vacuum and low/average-pressure distillation columns
Fluctuations in a column's top pressure and feed conditions around were studied, pointing out their main characteristics and requirements
their operational values have a strong relation to undesired changes in for a successful application; however, only a qualitative discussion is
temperature and composition profiles throughout the column, as well presented. The importance of pressure control on dividing wall columns
as with separation efficiency, since these factors are related to relative (DWCs) to keep the vapor flowrate on either side of the wall as designed
volatility between components in each stage. Thus, variations in these was also studied, but no numerical study is presented [4].
variables will induce vaporization of heavy components and condensa- There are several ways to control column pressure, depending on
tion of light components, thereby obtaining a non-conforming final how the column is configured, but the most common pressure control
product and ultimately affecting process economy. strategy in a distillation column involves the manipulation of cooling
Pressure is the most important variable to control in distillation fluid flowrate. However, since water is the main cooling fluid used,
columns, because it affects condensation, vaporization temperatures, this strategy is usually avoided, as it can accelerate fouling and corrosion
volatilities and almost all the processes that occur in the column [1]. in condensers [1].
However, the assumption of constant pressure is often justified because Although manipulation of cooling fluid flowrate strategy works well
in a simulation environment for pressure control [5–14], it is a difficult
⁎ Corresponding author at: Federal University of Campina Grande, Chemical
solution for the pressure control problem in most real distillation
Engineering Department, Brazil. Fax: +55 83 2101 1114. systems, because the flowrate of cooling fluid is an input variable
E-mail address: [email protected] (W.B. Ramos). which must be manipulated at high flowrates, which can be difficult

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjche.2017.07.023
1004-9541/© 2017 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: S. Ciannella, et al., Using hot-vapor bypass for pressure control in distillation columns, Chin. J. Chem. Eng. (2017), https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.cjche.2017.07.023
2 S. Ciannella et al. / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

or even unfeasible in real plants, as it is hard to manipulate a necessarily fluid flowrate constant. Through dynamic simulations, it was observed
large valve for such a huge demand of cooling fluid. that column and reflux drum pressure control were successfully
A commonly used alternative to avoid manipulation of cooling fluid achieved, while also evaluating the Integral Absolute Error (IAE) norm
flowrate is to partially flood the condenser with process liquid by as the control performance index when considering various distur-
placing a control valve after the condenser; changes in the liquid level bances in the column's feed stream. This is a decent contribution to
change the heat-transfer area, which changes the condenser duty; the the field since there is a lack of scientific investigation exploring the
cooling fluid flowrate is fixed [15]. On the other hand, another study simulation of hot-vapor bypass as a practical and consistent option for
does not recommend the use of a flooded condenser operation with a performing pressure control in reality.
valve after the condenser, because the heat-transfer area is a non-
linear function of the amount of process liquid in the condenser [16].
2. Process Studied and Control Configurations
The use of hot-vapor bypass system for pressure control of distillation
columns does not require the direct manipulation of the cooling fluid
The PFD presented in Fig. 1 was implemented with Aspen Plus®
flowrate; it assumes the split of a hot stream such that a portion of this
(steady-state) using the RadFrac routine. The simulated column has a
stream is redirected to promote fast dynamics in a specific part of the pro-
total of 29 stages (counted from top to bottom), including the reboiler,
cess, thus offering a fair condition for the control of a desired variable.
while the condenser and reflux drum were decoupled from the columns
An adequate usage of the hot-vapor bypass strategy for air-cooled
to obtain a more rigorous and realistic model. The condenser and reflux
condensers is a satisfactory alternative for the column pressure problem
drum were simulated with Heater and Flash2 routines, respectively;
among other explored approaches, such as direct modulation of the
moreover, total condensation was assumed, leading to no vapor produc-
overhead stream valve and cooling fluid manipulation in the condenser,
tion in the reflux drum. Phase equilibrium (VLE) was represented
since the latter have considerable implementation and maintenance
through a γ − φ approach with NRTL model for activity coefficient
issues [17].
calculations (γ). The vapor phase was considered ideal (φ = 1) due to
The implementation of control schemes which include hot-vapor
low system pressure.
bypass for heating and cooling of liquid streams through heat
The diameters of the column were calculated using the Column
exchangers was investigated [18]; according to the results, the addition
Internal/Interactive Sizing mode from Aspen Plus®, while the length
of a hot-vapor bypass stream around the heat exchanger can promote
and diameter of the reflux drum and sump height were calculated for
robust control of the outlet temperature by manipulating the bypass
a 5-minute hold-up [19]; the column diameter was 1.84 m, sump height
flowrate, providing a product stream in a suitable temperature for a
was 1.78 m and the reflux drum volume was 6.1 m3.
specific downstream process. In a distillation unit using hot-vapor
In order to reach the top and bottom specifications, reflux and boil-
bypass, the hot stream is the overhead vapor coming from the top of
up ratios were set as equal to 4.01 and 1.47, respectively, which corre-
the column, with a portion of it being redirected to the reflux drum, as
sponds to a reboiler heat duty equal to 8059.7 kW and a condenser
demonstrated in Fig. 1.
heat duty of 7149.9 kW. The data for the global distillation column
streams are shown in Table 1.

Table 1
Data for global streams

Variable Feed Distillate Bottom

Temperature/K 308.1 351.4 373.1

Pressure×10-5/Pa 1.50 1.0132 1.2184
Flowrate, kmol/h−1 600 130.12 469.88

Component Mole fraction

Water 0.80 0.1500 0.9800

Ethanol 0.20 0.8500 0.0200

Once the steady-state model converges numerically and no physical

inconsistencies are found, it is then exported to the dynamic platform
Aspen Plus Dynamics®, where the control loops are implemented and
properly tested. Fig. 2 presents the control structure with manipulation
of cooling fluid flowrate, called the base-case, established as the
following:

(1) Sump liquid level is controlled by manipulating bottom flow

Fig. 1. Flowsheet (PFD) for a conventional distillation system with hot-vapor bypass.
rate;
(2) Reflux drum liquid level is controlled by distillate flow rate
manipulation;
According to Fig. 1, the dynamics of top column pressure are affected
(3) The ratio between feed and reflux flowrates was kept constant;
by the manipulation of hot-vapor bypass stream valve (V-HVBP) or
(4) Temperature control is performed through manipulation of
vapor stream valve (V3), thus making it possible to control pressure in
steam flow rate in the reboiler;
such a manner that when the column pressure rises, the pressure
(5) Top pressure is controlled by manipulating cooling fluid flowrate;
controller manipulates the valve(s) to reduce vapor pressure within
(6) A flowrate controller was added in the feed stream to introduce
the column.
disturbances.
The present investigation discusses alternative control systems for
pressure control in a distillation column through the adequate inclusion
of a hot-vapor bypass stream connecting the column and reflux drum, The slope criteria was applied to determine the best stage to have
keeping both the heat-transfer area of the condenser and the cooling its temperature controlled, which consists in selecting the tray where

Please cite this article as: S. Ciannella, et al., Using hot-vapor bypass for pressure control in distillation columns, Chin. J. Chem. Eng. (2017), https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.cjche.2017.07.023
 S. Ciannella et al. / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 3

Fig. 2. Control structure manipulating the cooling fluid flowrate to pressure control (base-
case). Fig. 3. Control structure manipulating the vapor flowrate to condenser (configuration I).

considerable temperature variations exist from tray to tray; the column Furthermore, the following procedures are recommended to obtain
temperature of stage 28 is recommended to be controlled. a stable column top pressure upon simulating disturbances in the feed
Only level controllers are proportional (P), while pressure, flowrate stream:
and temperature controllers are proportional-integral (PI). A dead
time block of 2 min was added before the temperature controller. The • Deploy the regulatory control;
controllers were tuned [20], and the obtained results (the same values • Deploy the ratio control between feed and reflux flowrates;
for all cases) are summarized in Table 2. • Fix reflux drum and column sump liquid level at 50%;
• Run the simulation until the level reaches the set point;
• Deploy temperature controller and perform tuning actions;
Table 2 • Deploy pressure controller and perform tuning actions.
Controller parameters

Controller Controlled variable Manipulated variable Kc τI /min In control configuration II (as depicted in Fig. 4), the pressure on
L_FC Reflux to feed flowrate Reflux rate 0.5 0.3
the top stage of the column is kept constant through manipulation of
ratio overhead vapor coming from the column and is redirected into the
28_TC Temperature stage 28 Heating fluid 1.9 13.2 reflux drum through the bypass stream; manipulation of bypass vapor
Sump_LC Sump level Bottom flowrate 10 – flowrate is executed by modulating the bypass stream valve's degree
Drum_LC Reflux drum level Distillate flowrate 10 –
of opening, while condenser stream valve remains unchanged.
Drum_PC Reflux drum pressure Cooling fluid or overhead 20 10
vapor flowrate
Top_PC Top pressure Overhead vapor or 20 10
hot-vapor bypass flowrate

For an approach (difference between fluid process inlet temperature

and cooling fluid outlet temperature) of 15 K, the UA product (overall
heat transfer coefficient x heat-transfer area) is 168.9 kW·K− 1. Con-
denser heat duty is removed by 408566 kg·h−1 of incoming cooling
water at 301 K. The investigation of the hot-vapor bypass strategy for
the column's pressure control was performed considering three distinct
configurations of manipulated variables:

• Configuration I: manipulation of overhead vapor flowrate to the

condenser;
• Configuration II: manipulation of overhead vapor flowrate to the hot-
vapor bypass stream;
• Configuration III: simultaneous manipulation of overhead vapor
flowrates to the condenser and to the hot-vapor bypass stream.
Control configuration I aims to keep the pressure constant at the
top of the column through manipulation of overhead vapor coming
from the column and entering the condenser unit, as shown in Fig. 3.
Such manipulation is performed by modulating the condenser
stream valve's degree of opening, while the hot-vapor bypass valve is Fig. 4. Control structure manipulating the vapor flowrate to hot-vapor bypass
unaltered. (configuration II).

Please cite this article as: S. Ciannella, et al., Using hot-vapor bypass for pressure control in distillation columns, Chin. J. Chem. Eng. (2017), https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.cjche.2017.07.023
4 S. Ciannella et al. / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

1.25
The same procedures for configuration I are recommended for a stable
Flowrate
simulation with configuration II. 1.20
Composition
Control configuration III was designed to perform pressure control in
1.15
both the top of the column and the reflux drum using the condenser
stream and bypass stream valves simultaneously, thus consisting of 1.10

Pressure×10-5/Pa
a multivariable 2 × 2 control system. Fig. 5 shows the control scheme
1.05
of configuration III. The same procedures for configuration I are
recommended for a stable simulation of the hot-vapor bypass strategy 1.00
following this configuration.
0.95

0.90

0.85

0.80
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Time/h

Fig. 7. Open loop top pressure responses for feed disturbance in the base case.

composition (ethanol) at the top and bottom of the column, respectively,

for ±10% disturbances in the feed stream, with open loop top pressure
for the base case:

• The flowrate was increased to 660 kmol·h−1 at time equal to 2 h, and

it was reduced to 540 kmol·h−1 at 8 h;
• The composition (water) was increased to 88 mol% at time equal to
2 h and it was reduced to 72 mol% at 8 h.

Due to the small change (from 87500Pa to 1.15 ×105Pa) as depicted

in Fig. 7, the effect of pressure on the K-values can be neglected. Howev-
er, even this small change in pressure (not only in the top, but through-
out the column) is sufficient to cause large deviations in the distillate
Fig. 5. Control structure with dual pressure control (configuration III).
(Fig. 8a), and mainly in the bottom (Fig. 8b) compositions. These devia-
tions are due to modifications in mass and energy balances after chang-
The use of hot-vapor bypass for pressure control requires subcooled es in feed conditions (flowrate or composition), in addition to the action
liquid from the condenser to avoid vent from the reflux drum to atmo- of temperature, level and ratio controllers.
sphere or increasing the drum pressure; this results in condensers with For positive disturbance, the mass flowrate inside the column
larger heat-transfer areas. Fig. 6 shows the heat-transfer area and split increases, and the reboiler heat duty increases to reach the temperature
fraction redirected to hot-vapor bypass as a function of subcooling degree. set-point; as a result, the vapor flowrate at the top of the column also
increases. As the cooling water flowrate is kept constant (controller in
0.11 320 manual mode), the temperature (dew point) in the condenser outlet
Hot-Vapor Bypass fraction
stream increases by 3 °C; then the stream has two phases into the
0.10 UA 300 reflux drum for some minutes, however, the vapor phase disappears
when pressure increases. In summary, pressure behavior throughout
Hot-Vapor Bypass fraction

0.09 280 the column strongly depends on the withdrawal of energy by the
condenser.
UA /kW•g-1

0.08 260 The UA product value chosen for hot-vapor bypass configurations is
264.2 kW·K−1 (30 K of subcooling); this value is 56.5% greater than the
0.07 240 base case, for a split fraction close to 9%. Condenser heat duty is the
same as the base case. The UA value was chosen by comparing all
0.06 220 hot-vapor bypass configurations using the same condenser heat trans-
fer area. Table 3 depicts the results for stable top pressure control as a
0.05 200 function of the subcooling degree for ± 10% disturbances in feed
flowrate and composition.
0.04 180 According to Table 3, it is possible to use a hot-vapor bypass config-
15 20 25 30 35 uration (II and III) with 15 K degrees of subcooling, which would result
Degree of subcooling/K in a lower heat transfer area (UA = 202.7 kW·K−1) and is 20% greater
than the base case.
Fig. 6. Split fraction redirected to hot-vapor bypass and heat-transfer area as a function of Fig. 9 presents the top pressure dynamic responses (closed-loop)
the subcooling degree. for the three proposed configurations. According to the results, all
hot-vapor bypass configurations could keep the top pressure in its
3. Dynamic Results set-point. Compared to the base case, hot-vapor bypass configurations
present superior control performance, i.e. lower overshoots.
Before presenting the results for the three proposed control configu- Due to the elevated number of results for top and bottom ethanol
rations, Figs. 7–9 show the dynamic behavior of top pressure and compositions, the comparison between hot-vapor bypass and base

Please cite this article as: S. Ciannella, et al., Using hot-vapor bypass for pressure control in distillation columns, Chin. J. Chem. Eng. (2017), https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.cjche.2017.07.023
 S. Ciannella et al. / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 5

0.865 0.07

Flowrate
0.860
Flowrate 0.06 Composition
Composition
0.05
0.855

Mole fraction
Mole fraction 0.04
0.850
0.03

0.845
0.02

0.840 0.01

0.835 0.00
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Time/h Time/h

(a) (b)
Fig. 8. Dynamic responses of ethanol mole fraction at distillate (a) and bottom (b). Open-loop top pressure for base case.

(a) (d)

(b) (e)

(c) (f)
Fig. 9. Dynamic responses of top pressure for feed flowrate (a, b and c) and feed composition (d, e and f) disturbances.

Please cite this article as: S. Ciannella, et al., Using hot-vapor bypass for pressure control in distillation columns, Chin. J. Chem. Eng. (2017), https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.cjche.2017.07.023
6 S. Ciannella et al. / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

Table 3
Stable pressure control as a function of subcooling degree in the condenser

Subcooling degree /K Configuration I Configuration II Configuration III

Flowrate Composition Flowrate Composition Flowrate Composition

+ − + − + − + − + − + −

15 n y y n y y y y y y y y
20 n y y n y y y y y y y y
25 n y y n y y y y y y y y
30 y y y y y y y y y y y y
35 y y y y y y y y y y y y

y: top pressure was controlled.

n: top pressure was not controlled.

case will only be presented for configuration I, which presented lower another large modification. An identical behavior for the cooling flow
performance. As depicted in Figs. 10 and 11, the performance for rate is observed for disturbance in the feed composition. In some plants,
configuration I and the base case are identical; the lower overshoot of throttling the cooling water flow rate is undesirable because fouling
configuration I does not affect top or bottom compositions. problems arising from low velocity can allow solids to deposit in the
For hot-vapor bypass configurations, the cooling fluid flowrate is cooling water [17].
kept constant; therefore, only two curves will be presented in compar- From a process point of view, the dynamic behavior of the cooling
ing the base case's dynamic behavior of this variable. flow rate is proportional to the vapor flowrate from the top of the
Fig. 12 presents the dynamic behavior of the cooling fluid flowrate, column. Since a large change is observed, it is very common to operate
and as can be observed after the positive disturbance in the feed the condensers in an industrial plant with the cooling fluid flowrate
flowrate (Fig. 12a), the flowrate increases from 408 to 926 t·h−1 to valve completely open (100%); but this can result in high energy
keep the top pressure at its set-point. This would require a fairly large consumption.
valve, which in practical terms might be infeasible or would demand Another important variable is the outlet temperature of cooling
high maintenance values. For negative disturbance (Fig. 12b), fluid. Fig. 13 presents the results for the base case and all configurations
the cooling fluid flowrate changes from 408 to 249 t·h− 1, which is using hot-vapor bypass. As can be observed, the outlet temperature

(a) (b)
Fig. 10. Dynamic responses of ethanol mole fraction in the distillate (a) and bottom (b) for feed flowrate disturbance.

(a) (b)
Fig. 11. Dynamic responses of ethanol mole fraction in the distillate (a) and bottom (b) for feed composition disturbance.

Please cite this article as: S. Ciannella, et al., Using hot-vapor bypass for pressure control in distillation columns, Chin. J. Chem. Eng. (2017), https://
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 S. Ciannella et al. / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 7

1,000,000 1,000,000

900,000 900,000

Base-Case
800,000 Hot-Vapor Bypass 800,000
Base-Case
700,000 700,000 Hot-Vapor Bypass

-1
-1

Flowrate /kg•h
Flowrate /kg•h
600,000 600,000

500,000 500,000

400,000 400,000

300,000 300,000

200,000 200,000
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Time/h Time/h

(a) (b)
Fig. 12. Dynamic responses of the cooling fluid flowrate for feed flowrate (a) and (b) feed composition (a) disturbances.

328 328

Base-Case
Base-Case
Configuration I
324
Configuration I 324 Configuration II
Configuration II
Configuration III
Configuration III
Temperature/K

Temperature/K
320 320

316 316

312 312

308 308
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Time/h Time/h

(a) (b)
Fig. 13. Dynamic responses of cooling fluid outlet temperature for feed flowrate (a) and feed composition (b) disturbances.

for the base case reaches values superior to 323 K; this does not occur increase the temperature approach or the heat-transfer area. However,
with the hot-vapor bypass configurations. It is important emphasize the bigger impact is caused by the temperature approach and as previ-
that high temperatures increase the corrosion in the condenser [17]. ously mentioned, the cooling fluid outlet temperature value is already
In addition, the cooling fluid returning to the cooling tower at a high very high.
temperature may result in some problems such as a high evaporation Another important aspect of a control strategy is the behavior of the
rate. manipulated variable (MV), which is normally a valve. Fig. 14 presents
It is important to emphasize that it is possible to use a smaller the dynamic behavior of the MV for disturbances in the feed flowrate
cooling fluid flowrate for the base case than what is presented in (14a) and feed composition (14b) for configuration II, where it can be
Fig. 12, but one of two options should be chosen for the condenser: noted that the change in the valve opening is less than 10% for both

2600 100 2600 100

2500 80 2500 80
Flowrate/kg • h -1

Flowrate/kg • h -1

2400 60 2400 60
MV/%

MV/%

2300 40 2300 40
Flowrate Flowrate
MV MV

2200 20 2200 20

2100 0 2100 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Time/h Time/h

(a) (b)
Fig. 14. Dynamic responses of cooling fluid flowrate and manipulated variable for feed flowrate (a) and feed composition (b) disturbances: configuration II.

Please cite this article as: S. Ciannella, et al., Using hot-vapor bypass for pressure control in distillation columns, Chin. J. Chem. Eng. (2017), https://
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8 S. Ciannella et al. / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

disturbances. Furthermore, the change in the hot-vapor bypass flowrate fashion considering the problems of a distillation process, and provides
is also close to 10% for both disturbances. From an industrial point of explanations for the implications of inserting a hot-vapor bypass stream
view this means using small valves. for pressure control.
In general, all three hot-vapor bypass control configurations investi-
4. Control Performance Analysis gated in this work showed decent and relevant results as alternatives
for distillation pressure control against the usual strategy (base case),
Considering all the results obtained by hot-vapor bypass configura- which involves the dynamic manipulation of the cooling fluid flowrate
tions and due to its operational and implementation simplicity, the by t·h− 1. However, configurations II and III assume the hot-vapor
best choice would be configuration I or II; i.e. only manipulating one bypass valve as a manipulated variable, and have made the dynamic
valve, because configuration III assumes a higher complexity compared response of pressure softer. Furthermore, configurations II and III
to the others as it undergoes a multivariable 2 × 2 system in which work with a smaller heat-transfer area.
(inherent to this sort of control problem) there are interactions between Between II and III, modulating the hot-vapor bypass valve only in
each control loop. However, also considering the economical point configuration II provided the most satisfactory control performance
of view, the best configuration is II because of the lower heat transfer considering deviation of the top column pressure to its set point, besides
area. configuration III assumes a higher complexity as it undergoes a multi-
Control performance indexes are commonly encountered as integral variable system in which there are interactions between each control
functions and basically evaluate the numerical discrepancy between a loop.
measured variable and its set-point within a time length; several
indexes may be considered upon analyzing the performance of a control
system, such as the integral of absolute error (IAE), integral of time Acknowledgement
multiplied by absolute error (ITAE), integral of squared error (ISE),
and integral of time multiplied by squared error (ITSE) [21]. In order The authors thank the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento
to evaluate disturbance rejection for the three control schemes Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for financial support for this work.
proposed in this work, the IAE index was chosen as the quantifier for
control performance in each performed simulation, because it relates References
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The present work contributes to the development of alternative
options to accomplish pressure control in a realistic and practical

Please cite this article as: S. Ciannella, et al., Using hot-vapor bypass for pressure control in distillation columns, Chin. J. Chem. Eng. (2017), https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.cjche.2017.07.023
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