Control of a Ternary Extractive Distillation Process with Recycle Splitting Using a Mixed Entrainer

Dynamic control of the ternary extractive distillation process is complex, due to the relatively high number of operating parameters and interactions between multiple azeotropes. In this research, the control structures of the ternary extractive distillation using dimethyl sulfoxide and a mixed solvent of dimethyl sulfoxide and ethylene glycol, as the entrainer, were explored for separating tetrahydrofuran/ethanol/water. A composition with a ratio of reboiler duty to mole feed flow rate control structure was proposed to obtain good dynamic responses for the ternary extractive distillation process with dimethyl sulfoxide and mixed entrainer. Moreover, control comparisons of the ternary extractive distillation with dimethyl sulfoxide and mixed entrainer demonstrated that the dynamic performances of the extractive distillation with mixed entrainer were better compared with the process using dimethyl sulfoxide. These studies contribute to the development of controllability for ternary extractive distillation processes for separating ternary or multicomponent azeotropic mixtures.