With reference to the disproportionation
of trichlorosilane to
silane, a three-stage consecutive reversible reaction with rather
unfavorable reaction kinetics of a near zero thermodynamic conversion,
an in-depth comparison in steady-state performance is performed between
the reactive distillation column with a single reactive section (RDC-SRS)
and those with multiple reactive sections (RDC-MRS), under the assumptions
of the same total number of stages and the same total amount of catalyst
employed. With the incremental arrangement of reactive sections, the
RDC-MRS shows a steady improvement in steady-state performance with
considerably reduced operating cost and capital investment as compared
with the RDC-SRS. The great advantages originate essentially from
the additional degrees of freedom resulting from the arrangement of
multiple reactive sections in process synthesis and design. Apart
from the coordination effect to the three-stage consecutive reversible
reactions processed, the additional degrees of freedom serve also
to reinforce internal mass integration and internal energy interaction
between the reaction operations and the separation operations involved.
Arrangement of side-condensers is also examined toward the RDC-MRS,
and the outcomes reveal the thermodynamic rationale to adopt multiple
reactive sections in process development. Although these findings
are derived from the specific case study chosen, it should be considered
to be of general significance for the synthesis and design of reactive
distillation columns separating complicated reacting mixtures involving
multiple reversible reactions.
In our recent work, the arrangement
of multiple reactive sections
is found to greatly enhance the steady-state performance of reactive
distillation columns disproportionating trichlorosilane to silane.
In the current research, process dynamics and controllability are
studied through in-depth comparative analysis of open-loop and closed-loop
behaviors between three reactive distillation columns with, respectively,
a single reactive section (RDC-SRS), double reactive sections (RDC-DRS),
and triple reactive sections (RDC-TRS). In the regulation path, although
the arrangement of double and triple reactive sections reduces slightly
the process gains between the bottom product composition and reboiler
heat duty in the RDC-DRS and RDC-TRS, it helps to alleviate the coupling
between the bottom product composition and reflux flow rate, thereby
gaining increases in process controllability as compared with the
RDC-SRS. In the disturbance path, the arrangement of double and triple
reactive sections results in no intensified sensitivities to the disturbances
from feed flow rate and composition. The closed-loop operation tests
coincide with the open-loop analysis and demonstrate that the RDC-TRS
and RDC-DRS exhibit substantially improved antidisturbance and set-point
tracking capabilities as compared with the RDC-SRS. These outcomes
highlight evidently the great importance of arranging multiple reactive
sections to the dynamics and controllability of reactive distillation
columns separating reacting mixtures with unfavorable and complicated
reaction kinetics.
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