Performance analysis of a controlled multi-purpose chemical plant

Abstract

An available package was used as the basis of this work and it was further developed to obtain the CHPDSC package introduced in this study to investigate the dynamic behaviour of a typical multi-purpose chemical plant at different values of processing parameters. The package presented here, CHPDSC, permits to simulate a plant which can contain a reactor and a distillation column as major processing units. Furthermore a heat exchanger and two tanks may also be included in the flowsheet as auxiliary equipment. The CHPDSC package also permits to investigate the dynamic behaviour of and the effect of various control strategies on chemical plants which may have two, three or four components. The continuous production of di-buthyl phtalate was simulation using the four component CHPDSC package. In these simulations the dynamic behaviour and control objectives and structures for this process were also evaluated. Furthermore, various flow-sheets and control structures were simulated using the CHPDSC package for processes having two, three and four specles to study the system dynamics and process control in an effort to complete the work done earlier on the software which was the precursor of the CHPDSC.