Adaptive decoupling control for binary distillation column into a 3D virtual environment

The oil refinery plants have a particularly high energy consumption in the distillation process. Several authors state that these are the systems with the highest energy consumption in the petrochemical industry. Currently, work is being done on the implementation of adaptive controllers in order to improve the efficiency of the distillation process and the quality of the product. In this work the control of a binary distillation column developed within a 3D virtual laboratory is presented. Adaptive control by reference model (MRCA) is used for the manipulation of bottom and distillate concentrations. Initially, the mathematical description of the process is obtained, together with the computer-aided design, to subsequently implement the control technique. As a result, the behavior of the controlled system in simulation is shown and compared with the response of the embedded system within the virtual environment. The main contribution of this work is the interaction that a user can have with this type of processes and the possibility of implementing modern control strategies within this type of environments as a low-cost tool to support education and training activities.