Web Based Remote Experiments for Chemical Engineering Education: The Online Distillation Column

This paper deals with the development of a real laboratory plant with a web based process control system for training of students over the Internet and demonstration purposes. The system is described in detail on the example of a fully automated distillation column for the separation of ethanol–water mixture. The process–user-interface is implemented using the tomcat container with a JSP application and the OPC interface API. Furthermore a real-time video streaming is used for the online visualization of the plant. Finally, the successful evaluation of the tool is exemplarily presented for a troubleshooting task as a didactical scenario.