The Dynamic Behavior and Control of Methanol-Toluene Distillation Column

In this study the dynamic behavior for two control methods of the distillation column for the separation of methanol and toluene mixture are studied. The experimental responses of temperature in each tray of distillation column for step changes in set point of reboiler, reflux ratio and feed weight fraction were obtained. Based on a derived mathematical model, the Simulink simulator of the distillation column is used to implement the PID and fuzzy logic control methods. The Comparison between two controllers is done for step changes in set point, feed flow rate, feed weight fraction and liquid reflux. The controller performance is measured by using mean square error and integral square error. The results showed that the performance of the fuzzy controller is the best than the PID controller in fast access to the desired value and cancelling the disturbances. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25130/tjes.24.2017.25