Rigorous Dynamic Simulator for Control Study of the Large-scale Benchmark Chemical Plant

A dynamic simulator for the benchmark vinyl acetate (VAc) monomer production process is introduced. Rigorous first-principles dynamic models of the VAc process are implemented on the commercial software package Visual Modeler (Omega Simulation Co., Ltd.). The simulator employs pressure flow calculations and considers non-idealities in the process equipment, so that more realistic simulations are made possible, compared with the conventional simulators. The simulator's high performance calculation provides an environment where feasibility and performance of designed control systems can be efficiently evaluated without sacrificing high fidelity of the process model. The developed simulator will be made available in the public domain with a free limited license of Visual Modeler.