Dynamic behaviour of a CSTR with reactive distillation

The primary question concerning the safety analysis of an equipment, in which chemical reactions take place, is the knowledge of the existence of multiple steady states. The presence of this phenomenon reduces equipment operability and controllability, particularly during its start-up. Multiple steady states were found in the reactive distillation (RD) process, for example in methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) synthesis. Steady-state analysis and dynamic simulation of a MTBE reactive distillation have been done in the present paper. The basic kinetic model of MTBE production was applied for simulation of the process in a CSTR with total condenser. The steady-state behaviour of the system was studied in terms of the input parameters, i.e. feed flow rate of methanol, feed flow rate of hydrocarbons, reflux ratio and heating rate and ratio of hydrocarbons in the feed. The dynamic behaviour of the system during the start-up of the CSTR with total condenser was studied. Different perturbations of the manipulated variables were found to cause transitions between parallel steady states and these were also investigated using dynamic simulations.