QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF CONTROLLABILITY DURING THE DESIGN OF A TERNARY-SYSTEM WITH 2 RECYCLE STREAMS

In a previous paper (Elliott and Luyben, 1995), we outlined a generic methodology called the capacity-based economic approach that can be us ed to compare or screen preliminary plant designs by quantifying both steady-state economics and dynamic controllability. The method provide s an analysis tool that explicitly considers variability in product qu ality. A simple reactor/stripper recycle system was used to demonstrat e the method, In this paper, we consider a more complex recycle system consisting of a reactor and two distillation columns. The process was first studied in Tyreus and luyben (1993). The method is used to comp are alternative flow sheets, alternative choices of design parameters, and alternative plantwide control structures.