In many chemical plants, separation of products from unconverted raw materials is usually done by a train of several distillation columns, downstream of the reactor section. Frequently, each product has its own column with the quality specification for only one stream. However, there are several reasons to control the other stream as well. The justification is a competitive economic environment: balancing the energy consumption versus the loss of valuable product, increasing the throughput, or stabilizing downstream units.

In this white paper, you can read more about how Advanced Process Control can improve a column operation, what are the necessary steps in the application of APC, how dynamic models of propane-propylene column look like, and how the real improvements are achieved. 

About the author

Darko Lukec is a mechanical engineer with Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering. During his 35 years of experience in oil, gas and petrochemical industry, he was working on modeling and simulation, process optimization, basic design projects, advanced process controI and operator training simulators.

Through his scientific engagement, he published 20+ scientific and professional papers. Darko is now the owner of the company moDeL, the company he founded in 1993 and was a director for 20 years. moDeL is specialized for application of mathematical modeling and process simulation in process improvement solutions.