**Part 1**

**Modeling and Simulation** 

**1** 

**Modeling and Control Simulation** 

*Papua New Guinea University of Technology (UNITECH), Lae*

Vu Trieu Minh and John Pumwa

*Papua New Guinea*

**for a Condensate Distillation Column** 

Distillation is a process that separates two or more components into an overhead distillate and a bottoms product. The bottoms product is almost exclusively liquid, while the distillate

The separation process requires three things. Firstly, a second phase must be formed so that both liquid and vapor phases are present and can contact each other on each stage within a separation column. Secondly, the components have different volatilities so that they will partition between the two phases to a different extent. Lastly, the two phases can be

Calculation of the distillation column in this chapter is based on a real petroleum project to build a gas processing plant to raise the utility value of condensate. The nominal capacity of the plant is 130,000 tons of raw condensate per year based on 24 operating hours per day and 350 working days per year. The quality of the output products is the purity of the distillate, *xD*, higher than or equal to 98% and the impurity of the bottoms, *xB*, may be less/equal than 2%. The basic feed stock data and its actual compositions are based on the

The distillation column contains one feed component, *<sup>F</sup> x* . The product stream exiting the top has a composition of *xD* of the light component. The product stream leaving the bottom contains a composition of *Bx* of the light component. The column is broken in two sections. The top section is referred to as the rectifying section. The bottom section is known as the

The top product stream passes through a total condenser. This effectively condenses all of the vapor distillate to liquid. The bottom product stream uses a partial re-boiler. This allows for the input of energy into the column. Distillation of condensate (or natural gasoline) is cutting off light components as propane and butane to ensure the saturated vapor pressure

The goals of this chapter are twofold: first, to present a theoretical calculation procedure of a condensate column for simulation and analysis as an initial step of a project feasibility study, and second, for the controller design: a reduced-order linear model is derived such that it best reflects the dynamics of the distillation process and used as the reference model

**1. Introduction** 

may be liquid or a vapor or both.

separated by gravity or other mechanical means.

other literature (PetroVietnam Gas Company,1999).

stripping section as shown in Figure 1.1.

and volatility of the final product.
