A Structural Disturbance Propagation Model for the Conceptual Design of Highly Controllable Heat-Integrated Reaction Systems

Abstract

In process operation, reactor systems always experience various disturbances from the surrounding separation and=or energy recovery systems. If the design of a reactor system does not ensure adequate structural disturbance rejectability, the system may be less controllable or uncontrollable in operation. To facilitate the synthesis of a cost-effective, highly controllable reaction system for which a large number of design alternatives may exist, it is highly desirable to have a simple tool that can quickly assess disturbance propagation during flowchart development. In this article, a set of first-principles-based, yet simplified, structural disturbance propagation models is introduced for quickly quantifying SDP throughout a reaction system and then identifying design bottlenecks during conceptual design. The efficacy of the modeling is demonstrated by solving two practical example problems.