SELECTING A DISTILLATION COLUMN CONTROL STRATEGY

(a basic guide).

Dr. M.J. Willis

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering,
University of Newcastle

e-mail: mark.willis@ncl.ac.uk

Written: December, 1999 - March, 2000

Aims and objectives

The aim of these notes is to provide some basic ideas and rules that may be
used to select a distillation control strategy. Separate notes will discuss more
complex mathematical techniques that may also be used as part of a 'toolbox'
of methods that have evolved as aids in distillation control strategy selection.

Introduction

The effective operation of a binary distillation column is determined by the

control of many variables. Generally, the variables in table 1 need to be
controlled.
cv reason
composition of the distillate stream, xD product quality
composition of the bottoms stream, xB. product quality
liquid level in the reflux drum. maintain inventory (ensure material balance)
liquid level at the base of the column. maintain inventory (ensure material balance)
pressure in the column maintain inventory (ensure energy balance).
Equilibrium relationship is affected by changes in
pressure.
Table 1. Typical variables that have to be maintained in
a distillation column.

The two main disturbances that affect a column are:

• feed flowrate, F
• feed composition, zf

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So called 'manipulated variables' are adjusted to counter-act the effect of
disturbances and ensure desired operation. But what are the manipulated
variables ?

Relationships between inputs (mv's and dv's) and outputs (cv's) are quantified
by steady-state material and energy balances. To simplify preliminary
discussions consider ‘perfect control’ of pressure (i.e. the energy balance
equations are not considered).

Steady-state material balances around a distillation column

The following figure is a material balance diagram for a typical distillation

column:

Rectifying Section
Vn, yn
Condenser

Reflux
Ln,xD Accumulator
n
D, xD
Ln,xn Vn-1,yn-1 Distillate
Feed
F, z F
m
Lm,xm Vm-1,ym-1
Stripping Section
Boilup
VB,yB
Reboiler
LB,xB
Bottom Product
B, xB

The column feed is F (kmol/min) and the concentration of the more volatile
component in liquid is zf. The distillate flow is D (kmol /min) with overhead
product concentration xD and the bottom product flowrate is B (kmol / min) of
concentration xB.

For a binary column, the two independent overall balances are:

• the total material balance: F=D+B (1)

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• the component balance: Fzf = DxD + BxB (2)

Eliminating either B or D from these equations gives the following:

D z f − xB B xD − z f
= and / or = (3)
F xD − xB F xD − xB

The equations (3) define the “cut”, i.e what percentage of the total feedflow
exits the column as distillate and bottoms product for specified inlet and outlet
concentrations.

From equations (3) it is apparent that distillate (D) and bottoms flow (B) are
related to top and bottom product compositions (xD and xB) and are therefore
potential manipulated variables. As expected, changes in F and zf will also
affect xD and xB.

Around the condenser and accumulator assuming a total condenser, the

material balances are:

• the material balance: V n = D + Ln (4)

• the component balance: Vnyn = DxD + LnxD (5)

and around the reboiler,

• the material balance: Lm = Vb + B (6)

• the component balance: Lmxm = Vbyb + BxB (7)

For a liquid feed Lm = Ln+ F

Assuming that the molar flows of liquid and vapour are constant through the
column (constant molal overflow) then,

L = Ln = Ln+1……etc.

V = Vn = Vn+1 = ….etc.

Therefore: D = V - L and B = F + L - V (8)

Equations (3) demonstrate that D and B may be used to regulated xD and xB,
based upon the relationships (equation 8) it is obvious that L and V will also
affect the product compositions.

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Summary: the potential manipulated variables for product compositions are
D, B, L and V.

Column control strategies (an introduction)

A ‘bottom – up’ approach should be adopted whereby variables that are

essential to operation are regulated before quality variables. In other words,
pressure and then level must be adequately controlled before attention is
focused on control of composition.

Pressure control

Required as a change in pressure will affect relative volatility (α), the

temperature difference across the reboiler and condenser as well as process
safety. A common pressure control loop is shown below:

Pressure Control

V
PC flare
P
L Accumulator
D, xD
Feed Distillate
F, zF

Boilup
V
Steam in

B, xB
Condensate

Figure 1. A common pressure control loop (PC = pressure

controller).

Here, pressure is regulated using the flowrate of coolant to the condenser.

Increasing or decreasing the water flowrate will alter the temperature of the
condensing liquid and hence the amount of vapour in the column. This, in
turn, alters the pressure in the column. This will be a slow loop as the
dynamics effects of the cooling can be slow in comparison to simply venting
the system by e.g. opening a valve (the figure also shows this option, which
may be required as a safety mechanism, in case a situation of excessive
pressures arose).

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Note: There are numerous pressure control strategies that should be
considered. Further information may be found in: Chin, T.G. 'Guide to
distillation pressure control methods', Hydrocarbon processing,
October 1979, pp145 - 153. For the purposes of this lecture attention
is restricted to the strategy detailed above.

Level control

There will be two level loops on a distillation column as:

• the column base level must be maintained at an acceptable value.

• the reflux drum level must be maintained at an acceptable value.

The possible schemes that may be employed to do this are summarised

below:
Controlling level at column base with:
F D L B V
Controlling F x NP1
reflux drum D U x NP5 (1) (2)
level with: L U NP4 x (3) NP3*
B NP2 x NP2
V NP3 NP3* NP3 x
KEY:

Flows: F = Feed; D = Distillate; L = Reflux; B = Bottoms; V = Vapour

NP: Not Practical
U: Unusual to control level at column base by manipulating the
feed
x: the same mv cannot be used to control both levels.

Reason why strategy is not practical:

1
Feed Flow would not be used to control reflux drum level.
2
Bottoms flow would not be used to control reflux drum level.
3
Vapour flow would not be used to control reflux drum level.
3*
This scheme violates the mass balance relationships therefore
cannot be used (the reason why will be explained later in the notes).
4
Distillate flowrate would not be used to control level at the column
base.
5
Reflux flow would not be used to control level at the column base.

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From the matrix of 25 possible alternatives, there are actually only 3 schemes
that offer acceptable input-output combinations (from a practical viewpoint).

Scheme (I)

• control level in the column base via manipulation of the bottom product
flowrate (by automatically adjusting value).
• control level in the reflux drum by manipulation of distillate flowrate.
• a flow controller has been placed on the reflux line (to ensure steady flow
of reflux to the column).

Configuring a control strategy: scheme 1 (the energy balance control scheme)

SP V
PC flare
P
LC SP
L

D, xD
Feed Distillate
F, zF SP
FC

SP
Boilup
LC V
Steam in

B, xB
Condensate

Figure 2. Scheme (I), inventory control (PC = pressure

control, LC = level control, FC = flow control).

Scheme (II)

• control level in the column base by manipulation of the vapour boil-up

through the energy input to the reboiler (in practice this is achieved by
automatically adjusting the pressure/ flow of the heating medium to the
reboiler).
• control level in the reflux drum by manipulation of distillate flowrate.
• a flow controller has been placed on the reflux line (to ensure steady flow
of reflux to the column).

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 Configuring a control strategy: scheme II (a material balance control scheme)

SP V
PC flare
P
L LC SP

D, xD
Feed Distillate
F, zF SP
FC

Boilup
SP LC V

SP FC
B, xB
Condensate

Figure 3. Scheme (II), inventory control (PC = pressure

control, LC = level control, FC = flow control).

Scheme (III)
• control level in the column base by manipulation of bottoms flowrate.
• control level in the reflux drum by manipulation of reflux flowrate.
• a flow controller has been placed on the distillate line (to ensure steady
flow of product).
Configuring a control strategy: scheme III (a material balance control scheme)

SP V
PC flare
P
L FC SP

D, xD
Feed Distillate
F, zF SP
LC

SP
Boilup
LC V
Steam in

B, xB
Condensate

Figure 4. Scheme (III), inventory control (PC = pressure

control, LC = level control, FC = flow control).

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Selecting an appropriate distillation column control strategy

Basic ‘rules of thumb’ can be used to develop feasible strategies. The

methodology (as well as some rules) is explained below:

Rule of thumb 1: ‘flow control the smallest product flow’ (as this
will leave a large flow stream to manipulate level).

Example 1: Suppose that there is a large bottoms flowrate (B) and a

small distillate flowrate (D).

Using this information the control strategy may be developed as follows:

• flow control the distillate flow (D)

• ensure that the material balance is maintained around the reflux drum.
Recall that V = D + L, for a constant V, if D changes then there must be an
equal and opposite change in L or the level in the reflux drum will either
drop or start to increase. To ensure that the level remains constant (and
that an appropriate change is made to L) a level controller is required on
the reflux drum the manipulated variable being L.
• ensure that the material balance is maintained around the column base.
Recall that F = D + B so if, for a constant F, D changes then there must be
an equal and opposite change in B or the level in the base of the column
will either drop or start to increase. To ensure that the level remains
constant (and that an appropriate change is made to B) a level controller is
required with its manipulated variable being B.

This control scheme corresponds to scheme III and is one of the more popular
control schemes. It is often referred to as a material balance control
scheme.

Example 2: Suppose that there is a small bottoms flowrate (B) and a

large distillate flowrate (D).

Using this information the strategy may be developed as follows:

• flow control the bottoms flow (B).

• ensure that the material balance is maintained around the column, F = D +
B. For constant F, if B changes there must be an equal and opposite
change in D or liquid inventory will change (e.g. level may rise in the reflux

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 drum, column base, or both). To maintain constant inventory, a level
controller is used to make an appropriate change to D.
• ensure that the material balance is maintained around the column base.
Recall that at the column base F+ L - B = V, for a constant F and L, if B
changes then there must be an equal and opposite change in V or the level
in the base of the column will either drop or increase. To ensure that the
level remains constant (and that an appropriate change is made to V) a
level controller is required (the mv being V).

This control scheme corresponds to scheme II and it should be noted that the
control of level using V may have weird dynamic effects and therefore is not a
favourite. Again, this control scheme is often referred to as a material
balance control scheme.

Rule of thumb 2: ‘material balance control scheme (III) should be

favoured if there is a large reflux ratio, i.e. (L/D) > 5’ (if L is large
in comparison to D then relatively small changes in L will
ensure good level control, i.e. the process gain is large).

Rule of thumb 3: ‘control scheme (I), often referred to as the

energy balance control scheme, should be favoured if there is a
small reflux ratio, i.e. (L/D) < 1’ (if L is small in comparison to D
then relatively small changes in D will ensure good level
control, i.e. the process gain is large).

Composition control

On-line analysers are rarely used as the installed cost will normally be in the
range of £100 K per instrument. Therefore composition is often regulated
indirectly using temperature (at constant pressure there is a direct relationship
between temperature and composition for a binary mixture). Using a liquid
temperature near the base of the column for bottom composition and a liquid
temperature near the top of the column for top product composition, the
remaining mv’s (i.e. those not used for the purposes of level and pressure
control) may be used to regulate composition. This leads to the following
schemes:

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Scheme (I)

• top product composition (through a liquid temperature near the top of the
column) is regulated by adjusting reflux flow, L.
• bottom product composition (through a liquid temperature near the bottom
of the column) is regulated by adjusting vapour flow, V (indirectly via
steam flow).

This gives rise to an alternative name for this control strategy: the LV
configuration.
Composition Control: scheme 1 (the energy balance control scheme)

SP V
PC flare
P
L LC SP

D, xD
Feed Distillate
F, zF SP SP
FC TC

SP SP
TC
LC V

B, xB
Condensate

Figure 5. Scheme (I), inventory & composition control (PC

= pressure control, LC = level control, FC = Flow control
and TC = temperature control). This scheme is also known
as the LV configuration.

Scheme (II)

• top product composition (through a liquid temperature near the top of the
column) is regulated by adjusting reflux flow, L.
• bottom product composition (through a liquid temperature near the bottom
of the column) is regulated by adjusting bottoms flow, B.

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This gives rise to an alternative name for this control strategy: the LB
configuration.

Composition Control: scheme II (a material balance control scheme)

SP V
PC flare
P
SP
L LC

D, xD
Feed Distillate
F, zF SP
FC TC

SP LC V

SP FC
B, xB
Condensate

Figure 6. Scheme (II), inventory & composition control

(PC = pressure control, LC = level control, FC = Flow
control and TC = temperature control). This scheme is
also known as the LB configuration.

Scheme (III)

• top product composition (through a liquid temperature near the top of the
column) is regulated by adjusting distillate flow, D.
• bottom product composition (through a liquid temperature near the bottom
of the column) is regulated by adjusting vapour flow, V.

This gives rise to an alternative name for this control strategy: the DV
configuration.

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Composition Control: scheme III (a material balance control scheme)

SP V
PC flare
P
SP
L FC
D, xD
Feed SP Distillate
F, zF SP
LC TC
SP
SP TC
LC V

B, xB
Condensate

Figure 6. Scheme (III), inventory & composition control

(PC = pressure control, LC = level control, FC = Flow
control and TC = temperature control). This scheme is
also known as the DV configuration.

Worked example: a methanol / water column.

50 / 50 wt % methanol / water mixture is to be separated in a 10 stage

column. The feedrate is 65 kg/hr entering at stage 5. The objective is to
separate the mixture into a top product of 95 wt% methanol and a bottom
product of 5 wt %. The feed is liquid at its boiling point. The condenser is a
total condenser. The reflux flow is 36 kg/hr.
a) What are the material flows through this system (external liquid and
internal liquid and vapour flows) ?
b) Suggest a possible control strategy for this column.

Summary

Rules of thumb, common sense and a basic knowledge of chemical

engineering can generally be used to specify an appropriate manipulated
variables and hence the control scheme of a distillation column. However, this
basic knowledge should also be complemented by rigorous systems analysis.
To do this it is necessary to consider distillation column modelling in greater
detail.

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