Output-Feedback Control of Reactive Batch Distillation Columns

Abstract

In this work, an output-feedback control for the regulation of distillate purity via manipulations of the reflux ratio in reactive batch distillation is designed. The approach is based on an approximate model of the composition dynamics and makes use of a reduced-order observer to estimate the modeling error. An input/output linearizing feedback is proposed where the estimated modeling error is included to achieve robust tracking of a composition reference. It is shown that the resulting controller has the structure of a proportional−integral derivative (PID) controller with antireset windup. The controller performance is tested using a simulation example including strong uncertainties in the reaction model. An interesting finding is that the required reflux ratio policy to reach asymptotically a constant reference resembles the reflux ratio policy obtained from posing an optimization technique (Mujtaba, I. M.; Macchietto, S. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 1997, 36, 2287−2295).