Modeling and Simulation of a Chemical Reactor for the Production of Acetic Acid – III. Dynamic Phase Transitions

Abstract

A special modeling and simulation approach is required to account for potential discrete events during the simulation of chemical plants. In the case of a reactor for the production of acetic acid discrete events may be caused by phase transitions or due to the extinction of the zero order reaction. It is shown how to handle such system discontinuities using an appropriate model formulation and exploiting the numerical methods of the simulation environment DIVA. Simulation results illustrate the effects of discrete events in the reactor model.