Advanced Distillation Curve Measurement with a Model Predictive Temperature Controller

In previous work, several significant improvements in the measurement of distillation curves for complex fluids were introduced. The modifications to the classical measurement provide for (1) temperature and volume measurement(s) of low uncertainty, and most important, (2) a composition-explicit data channel in addition to the usual temperature–volume relationship. This latter modification is achieved with a new sampling approach that allows precise qualitative as well as quantitative analyses of each fraction, on the fly. In the new approach, the distillation temperature is measured in two locations. The temperature is measured in the usual location, at the bottom of the take-off in the distillation head, but it is also measured directly in the fluid. We have further modified our developmental instrument to incorporate a model predictive temperature controller. In response to either an equation-of-state calculation or a previous distillation curve, the programmable temperature controller increases the fluid temperature to achieve a constant mass flow rate of vapor through the distillation head. This approach eliminates the aberrations that one typically encounters in the data due to fluctuations in distillation rate, often referred to as hesitation. Thus, we can collect data from two temperature channels: one a true state point measurement (measured directly in the fluid) and the other comparable to previous data (measured in the head).