Operation of divided wall column using profile position control

Distillation system is the most important method for the separation of ternary mixtures. At present, DWC is a promising energy-alternative for separation process. DWC is capable of achieving typically 30% energy savings compared with a conventional system. Despite such advantages, DWC is not widely used from the fear to run into controllability problems due to the DWC complexity. To overcome the control problems, we proposed profile position control scheme which is based on the nonlinear wave theory. Dynamic simulation tests showed that profile position control can return the product purity to the desired values in the case of feed disturbances.