Parameter Estimation of a Rigorous Rate Base Model for Distillation in Packed Columns

This papers presents the formulation, analysis and parameter estimation of a steady state Rate Base Model (RBM) for a pilot-scale distillation column. A packed column is considered, using non-equilibrium stages to represent the packing segments and accounting for the special structure such that sparsity can be exploited in the non-linear parameter estimation problem. Model parameters are tuned to fit the model with experimental data from multiple experiments. A sensitivity analysis with respect to parameters to estimate is performed in order to properly select the parameters that can be estimated from the available temperature measurements. The tuned model is validated with experimental data.