PROCESS DYNAMICS OF BINARY DISTILLATION

The dynamic behaviour of binary distillation in the vicinity of an equilibrium state is investigated. The general linear state equations and the principles of solution are given. These are applied to a more detailed study of a theoretical nonlinear process for which the response of compositions to small perturbations in the feed flow rate is solved. The effects of certain approximations needed to render the differential equations linear with constant coefficients are studied qualitatively. A feature in the present model which may be of interest is the dividing of the process into two subprocesses, mass transfer and liquid flow, and the combining of the independently obtained responses for each subprocess by superposition. As the procedure suggests the use of the Laplace transform, a simple numerical Laplace inversion method is also given. © 1969.