Plantwide control structure design for modified ethyl benzene process

Abstract

In this thesis, plantwide control structure design of ethyl benzene (EB) process has been investigated. The ethyl benzene process incorporates the reaction of benzene with ethylene to form the desired EB product and the undesired di-ethyl benzene (DEB) by-product. The DEB is continuously recycled with no exit or recycled to “extinction’’ (no net DEB product produced). The optimum flowsheet is obtained from Luyben (2010). Two effective plantwide control structures are developed using Wongsri’s procedure. The main emphases of the procedure are establishing a fixture plant (material-balanced control and fixed process inputs) and disturbance management. An analysis of results shows that the design structures have better control performances compared to Luyben (2010).