Development of a port-stream based equation oriented modelling of dividing wall column using MOSAIC

• Main Author: Rosshila, Idris
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/29026/1/Development%20of%20a%20port-stream%20based%20equation%20oriented%20modelling%20of%20dividing%20wall%20column.pdf; http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/29026/

Dividing wall column (DWC) is considered as a complex non-standard distillation column. The different sections configurations within the DWC divided by the vertical wall inside the column increase the complexity of modelling DWC due to the existence of recycle loops or interconnecting streams. An equation-oriented (EO) approach is well suited to handle such problem compared to sequential modular (SM) approach which often leads to convergence problems. At a very basic level, the modelling approach of DWC needs to be reliable to be fully extended to other advanced applications such as process control and optimization. In this paper, a systematic modelling approach of steady-state DWC is presented which encompasses ports and stream unit connectivity that is admissible to EO process flowsheet using MOSAIC. MOSAIC is a new web-based modelling environment which is designed to minimize modelling efforts, minimizing programming efforts, and as a code generator for many programming languages. Such approach present sets of equation system which functionally like a unit operation, with a presence of ports and the existence of streams in connecting all equation systems together. Some adjustment on equations involved has been made accordingly to suit with the port and stream connectivity features particularly in interconnecting streams (liquid and vapour split). Through this approach, different sections of DWC can be combined as a single column in a flowsheet. To test the functionality of the proposed approach, a case study with two different experimental data set were considered which is the separation of methanol/ 1-propanol/ 1-butanol. Then the developed model is applied for the Fatty Acid (FA) fractionation to separate the light-cut (LC), middle-cut (MC), and heavy-cut (HC). Both models show good convergence with an acceptable error below than 10% which proves the validity of the model development.