The present invention relates to a method for continuously operating a distillation column, which is designed to separate a mixture S, which contains essentially a substance A and a substance B, which boils significantly higher than substance A. In the method according to the invention, the reflux ratio is changed according to the feed flow and, at the same time, the energy input by means of the heat-transfer medium is changed proactively (so-called feed-forward control) by accounting for the feed flow by means of feed-forward control. At the same time, the bottom temperature is observed and the control structure is changed if the bottom temperature falls too far when the heat-transfer medium is reduced by means of the feed flow.

The present invention provides a method for operating a rectification column (1000) for separating a mixture (S) containing a component A and a component B having a boiling point higher than that of the component A at an operating pressure of the rectification column (1000) which is lower than ambient pressure, wherein the method comprises a step for controlling the mass fraction of the component B in the product stream of the component A (P1) to a value within a first target range from 0.1% to 5.0% and the mass fraction of the component A in the product stream of the component B (P2) to a value within a second target range from 0.1% to 5.0%, wherein the control is carried out as a function of a controlling temperature (TC) for which a setpoint TC.sub.setpoint is calculated according to the equation TC.sub.setpoint=T2+F.Math.(T1−T2), where F is a factor which is in the range from 0.1 to 0.9 and T1 and T2 are reference temperatures, wherein in the case of a deviation in the measured control temperature (TC) from its setpoint TC.sub.setpoint being found the control temperature (TC) is readjusted to the setpoint TC.sub.setpoint by varying one or more of the following actuating variables: (i) heating of the column bottom (130) by the evaporator (200), (ii) the mass flow {dot over (m)}.sub.A42 of the reflux (A42) fed back into the rectification column, (iii) the mass flow {dot over (m)}.sub.P2 of the product stream P2 and (iv) the mass flow {dot over (m)}.sub.P1 of the product stream P1.

A method of separating an organic solvent which may easily separate and recover an organic solvent from a mixed solution containing the organic solvent, and an organic solvent separation system capable of performing the same are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the method includes introducing a first mixed solution into a first distillation column to recover an organic solvent and discharge a first fraction containing an unrecovered organic solvent and a high boiling point compound A to a bottom of the column, introducing a second mixed solution into a second distillation column to recover organic solvent and discharge a second fraction containing an unrecovered organic solvent and a high boiling point compound B, and introducing the first fraction and the second fraction into a third distillation column to recover an organic solvent-rich fraction and a high boiling point compound-rich fraction.

In some implementations, a control system may obtain historical data associated with usage of a distillation column during a historical time period. The control system may configure a prediction model to monitor the distillation column for a hazardous condition. The prediction model may be trained based on training data that is associated with occurrences of the hazardous condition. The control system may monitor, using the prediction model, the distillation column to determine a probability that the distillation column experiences the hazardous condition within a threshold time period. The prediction model may be configured to determine the probability based on measurements from a set of sensors of the distillation column. The control system may perform, based on the probability satisfying a probability threshold, an action associated with the distillation column to reduce a likelihood that the distillation column experiences the hazardous condition within the threshold time period.

An apparatus and process for distillation of methanol, which may also be used in distillation of other products, such as ethanol. The present apparatus and process have the purpose of reducing the consumption of energy and of cooling water and/or electricity in a distillation process of crude intermediate products, comprising a pre-treatment stage, known as stabilizing stage, for the removal of the volatile components, and a concentration stage, including one or more columns for distillation.

The invention relates to a method for predicting flooding in a distillation column by machine learning including a constructing and training phase of a machine learning model obtained from previously collected data and from a set of sensors, an operational phase for predicting flooding(s), by collecting a current data flow until a buffer is filled, pre-processing data from the data buffer by predetermined cleansing and classification, synchronizing the data of the current set of clean and classified data, determining a value of a current variable representative of at least one current performance of the at least one distillation column, forming a current set of transformed data by calculating predetermined derivatives, and predicting the current state of said distillation column by applying said learning model to said current set of transformed data.

An apparatus and process for distillation of methanol which may also be used in distillation of other products, such as ethanol. The apparatus and process have the purpose of reducing the consumption of energy and of cooling water and/or electricity in a distillation process of crude intermediate products, including a pre-treatment stage, known as stabilizing stage, for the removal of the volatile components, and a concentration stage, including one or more columns for distillation.

Provide is a distillation tower management system, a distillation tower state analysis method, and a distillation tower management method that are capable of predicting abnormality in distillation towers before the abnormality becomes apparent and capable of taking preventive actions. The distillation tower management system includes a measurement unit 10 that is at least one selected from the group consisting of a pressure measurement unit 11, a temperature measurement unit 12 and a chlorine measurement unit 13, an operation data unit 20 for producing operation data containing measurement data measured with the measurement unit 10, an analysis unit 30 for analyzing the state of a distillation tower 103 from the operation data and producing analysis data regarding the state of the distillation tower 103, and a control unit 40 for producing, based on the analysis data, control data regarding a differential pressure-eliminating agent that is added to the distillation tower 103.

The present disclosure discloses a method for evaluating estimation accuracy of energy consumption per ton in distillation processes, and belongs to the technical field of evaluation of estimation performance of energy consumption per ton in distillation processes. The method includes building a state space model of a distillation process, determining a state estimation model, and obtaining an estimated value of energy consumption per ton in the distillation process according to the state estimation model and the state space model; obtaining an estimated value of a state variable with the optimal overall evaluation using a determined evaluation function, describing interference information making the estimated value deviate from a true value and being reflected in an observed value, and transferring the interference information from the observed value to the estimated value of the state variable to obtain an estimation accuracy of the state variable; and unitizing the interference information affecting the estimated value, and evaluating the estimation accuracy of energy consumption per ton based on the unitized interference information. The present disclosure may well reflect the deviation between the estimated value and the true value without the true value, and evaluate the same object using different estimation methods under the same architecture, so that the evaluation results may cross different estimation methods and still have practicality.

The present disclosure provides a method for separating a feed stream in a distillation tower. The method may include forming solids in a controlled freeze zone section of the distillation tower; emitting radiation from a first radiation source in the controlled freeze zone section while the controlled freeze zone section forms no solids; detecting radiation emitted by the first radiation source as a first radiation level; detecting radiation emitted by the first radiation source as a second radiation level after detecting the first radiation level; and determining whether the solids adhered to at least one of on and around a first mechanical component included in the controlled freeze zone section based on the first radiation level and the second radiation level.