Esterification is one of the important chemical reactions in the industry to produce
a wide variety of esters. Esterification is a typically reversible process suffering from
equilibrium condition. The coupling of esterification process with pervaporation process
is able to increase the conversion of reactants beyond the thermodjmamic equilibrium.
However, the performance of pervaporative membrane reactor is greatly
influenced by the reactor temperature. Generally, esterification process attains
maximum reaction rate when the reactor temperature is maintained at an optimum value.
In this work, simulation of the process is done in order to study the process behaviour.
The effect of design variable on the process is investigated and sensitivity analysis of
the process is performed.
Two control schemes, which are Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) and
Generic Model Control (GMC) control schemes are developed to reach the goal of
controlling the temperature of pervaporative membrane reactor. Both control schemes
are subjected to a set point tracking to compare the control performance of both
controllers in tracking a set point. In addition to set point tracking, two performance
tests are carried out for comparison of control performance of both control schemes in
Servocontrol and Regulatory Control. Finally, PID and GMC control schemes are
subjected to two robustness tests to study their sensitivity towards the changes in
process model.
Esterification is one of the important chemical reactions in the industry to produce a wide variety of esters; thermodinamic equilibrium; Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) and Generic Model Control (GMC) control schemes are developed to reach the goal of controlling the temperature of pervaporative membrane reactor
Development of model-based control for esterification process in pervaporative membrane reactor_Tan Chin Wei_K4_2009_NI