OP-II-3

PP-II-31MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF REACTIVE DISTILLATIONSYNTHESIS OF MTBEMityanina O.E., Samborskaya M.A., Kravtsov A.V.Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk, Russia, e-mail: elvoreth@mail.ruDuring the last three decades carrying out a chemical reaction combined with theseparation of reactive mixture in the same apparatus is becoming more and moresignificant for chemical industry. Organization of processes by this way hashydrodynamical and kinetical advantages. Besides, it often turns out that a combinedprocess is the most simple and economically sound [1].There is a number of technological limitations, preventing the reactive distillationprocesses. The main limitations are the temperature limitation (chemical stage of theprocess carries out beyond the range of components boiling points) and timelimitation (duration of the chemicall reaction can not be above the dwelling time incolumn), also, both reagents and products must have different boiling points [2].However, the reactive distillation concept allows to decrease capital outlays andenergy expenditure. In particular, the widest used reactive distillation process is theproducing of methyl-tert-butyl ether (MTBE), ethyl-tert-butyl ether (ETBE) and otheretherification processes [3].Due to interaction between chemical reaction and mass-transfer, combinedprocesses can show extremely non-linear behavior and steady state multiplicity.Thus, the main feature of combined processes is the presence of non-linearmembers in mathematical model. The non-linearity emanates from non-lineardependency of reaction rate from temperature and concentration. Since theseetherification processes are characterized by high nonideality of behavior, thechemical reactions are defined with respect to activity.This fact significantly complicates dynamical research and control problem inpractice. Thus, the creation of optimal control strategy based on unsteadymathematical models, considering physical and chemical properties of combinedprocess is a very actual object.VLE calculations in the system, done by some researchers within the bounds ofmodeling, played secondary role. Thus they were carried out in the narrow range ofprocess-dependent parameters and concentrations, which is not enough to obtainreliable correlations suitable for control purposes. The aggregation of n-butene and388