Vapor recompression distillation: Multi-scale dynamics and control

This paper focuses on the dynamics and control of a vapor recompression distillation column. A dynamic modeling framework is presented and the presence of multi-timescale behavior is documented. Using singular perturbations, a model reduction procedure is outlined to arrive at reduced order models capturing the dynamics in each time-scale. A hierarchical control scheme is proposed based on the multi-scale nature of the system. The theoretical results are illustrated via a simulation case study on a propane-propylene system.