Posted by Don Snowden on June 05, 1999 at 17:01:57:
Although I have heard of several application that do work, what are people's experiences of implementing PCTs (pressure-compensating temperature) at the regulatory level (e.g. on the TDC-3000 basic regulatory level) ?
On multicomponent fractionation (e.g. Crude Unit), it is not difficult to implement. But on several applications (Demethanizer lower tray TC and Deethanizer lower TC) I tried in an Ethylene Plant it was not successful. There was too much interaction with the pressure controller. For example, when the pressure would rise the PCT would fall, then the regulatory TC tried to add heat, thus causing the pressure to rise more.
Since there is always some interaction between a tower's TC and PC, I think one has to be careful implementing PCT's at the regulatory level, particularly in the higher purity distillation columns. Then again, it could be that one needs to make sure the pressure control scheme works very well.