Steady State and Dynamic Operation of Four-Product Dividing-Wall (Kaibel) Columns: Experimental Verification

Control and operation of energy-efficient dividing-wall columns can be challenging. This paper demonstrates experimentally the start-up and steady state operation of a four-product Kaibel column separating methanol, ethanol, propanol, and n-butanol. We use a control structure with four temperature controllers and show that it can handle feed rate disturbances as well as set point changes. The experiments compare well with an equilibrium stage model.