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Industrially, one of the techniques used to enhance the optimum production of petrochemicals is the configuration of process control units such as gas chromatography (G.C. Analyzer) for concentration and thermocouple for temperature in the production system. This research focused on the application of the principles of mass and energy conservation in the development of dynamic or unsteady state models for predicting the behaviour of the system or process involved in the production of ethylene glycol from a reaction involving oxidation of ethylene-to-ethylene oxide which further undergoes hydrolysis to produce ethylene glycol in a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR). The high mathematical complexities of the mass and energy balance models of the Process as a result of the reaction kinetic scheme of the non-elementary reaction of the process which integrated both linear and non-linear terms into the models were resolved by the application of the principles of Taylor’s series expansion, Laplace Transform, partial fraction and matrix in the development of the dynamic models. Process simulation tool (Simulink) was utilized in the configuration of closed-loop systems with thermocouple and G. C. Analyzer, at the feed point of the reactor for process variables (temperature and concentration) control during the process using proportional, integral and derivative (PID) as controller parameters. The results of the process behaviour showed that manual tuning of different controller parameters experienced a high level of fluctuations and would not attain its stability or steady state even at a processing time above 16 seconds. Whereas, automatic tuning of desired controller gains of 1.361, 1.056 and 0.4109 for K P , K I and K D for temperature and pressure with a tuning time of 143.9 Seconds, requires a maximum time of 8 seconds for the system to attain stability. This study showed that automated tuning of the controller resulted in better performance characteristics for optimum production of ethylene glycol in a non-isotheral continuous stirred tank reactor within the shortest possible time.
Wosu et al. (Tue,) studied this question.