Plantwide control structure design of tert-amyl methyl ether (tame) process

Abstract

The design of plantwide control structure for tert-amyl methyl ether (TAME) process using Wongsri’s design procedure is reported. The design procedure consist of 8 steps which emphasis on plantwide level design: establishing material-balanced plant, disturbance management for quality control, fixing process stream inflows. The TAME is used as a fuel oxygenates to increase the octane number in gasoline. It affects to reduce air pollution. TAME is produced by the catalytic etherification of isoamylenes [2-methyl-1-butene (2M1B) and 2-methyl-2-butene (2M2B)] with methanol. The three main reactions is reversible reaction. The process flowsheet consists of a reactor, a reactive distillation column and two pressure-swing azeotopic distillation columns. In addition, there are two reycle streams and two fresh feed streams. The combined feed of fresh and recycled methanol is regulated and is ratioed to isoamylene flow. Each component is handled at their quantifiers. The designed plantwide control structure performance is comparable to the Luyben’s design.