Design and control of a process to produce furfuryl alcohol

•A process to produce furfural alcohol is developed.•Reaction occurs in the gas phase.•A single distillation column can produce high-purity product.•A proposed control structure can effectively reject disturbances.

The design and control of a process to produce furfuryl alcohol is reported. Furfural is hydrogenated to furfuryl alcohol in a gas phase packed bed reactor with high selectivity and conversion. The product alcohol is separated from unreacted furfural and byproducts water and 2-methyl furan in a single low-pressure distillation column. Catalyst dilution is employed to increase the area available for heat transfer in the reactor. Control studies indicate that single-point temperature control of the distillation column is adequate to maintain product purity and avoid excessive loss of valuable material from the top of the column. A reactor effluent composition controller cascaded onto a reactor temperature controller can compensate for catalyst deactivation by raising the reactor temperature.