Pressure Control in a Distillation Column

PI Control of a Second order system

The transfer function relating the signal from the pressure sensor at the top

A proportional + integral (PI) controller is used to control a process with

of a distillation to the signal to the control valve throttling the cooling

transfer function

water to the condenser is

K p (1 23s )
Y (s)

Gp
U ( s ) s (1 7 s )(1 91s )

1
( s 1)( 2 s 1)

s has units of radians per minute.

a) Determine the values of the controller gain which stabilize the system
Kp equals 0.0178 radians per second. A proportional controller closes the

when the integral time is 0.5 minutes.

control loop.
b) Determine the minimum value of the integral time which guarantees
a) Determine the values of the controller gain, which stabilize the control
system.

that the control system is stable for all positive values of the controller
gain

Frequency response of an Adsorption column

Distillation Column Control

A PI controller regulates the boil up rate in a small packed distillation

The open loop transfer function of a packed column gas adsorber is

GH

K e 0.5 s
( s 17.6)[( s 4.2) 2 6.05)]

s has a units of radian per minute and K = 1.67 103 (rad/min)3

A proportional controller with unity gain close the loop
a) Determine the value of the loops gain cross over frequency, 1
b) Determine the value of the loop phase cross over frequency,
c) Determine the loop gain margin and phase margin

column by throttling the steam flow to the boiler. The vapor flow rate is
determined by measuring the pressure drop across the packing. The
transfer function relating y the measurement signal to u the signal to the
steam valve is
Y ( s)
6

Gp
U ( s ) ( s 1)(10 s 1) 2
where the time constant have the units of seconds. The controller setting
are to be determine by the procedure of table below.
(i)

Set the controller time constants by using straight line

approximations to phase behaviour on a Bode plot

(ii)

Set the controller gain by using the loops gain margin as the
relative stability criterion.

a) Estimate the phase cross over frequency of Gp

b) Find the minimum value of the integral time for which the controller
contributes no phase lag at the crossover frequency of G p

c) Using the integral time found in part b, determine the controller gain
which gives a gain margin of two for the control loop.

8.3 A liquid level control system can be configured in either of two ways:
with control valve manipulating flow of liquid into the holding tank (as in
the left figure), or with a control valve manipulating the flow of liquid
from the tank (right figure).Assuming the liquid level transmitter always is
direct acting.

a) For each configuration what control action should a proportional

pneumatic controller have if the control valve is air to open
b) Repeat part a) for an air to close control valve