Distillation is the crucial separation method of liquid mixtures. However, its energy demand, currently provided by burning fossil fuels, is very high. Therefore, it is very important to optimise the design and the operation of distillation technologies. Batch distillation is used when smaller amounts of mixtures must be treated, often in varying amount and composition; it is typical in the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industry or in the production of spirits. Since the mixture is not fed into the column continuously but it is treated in batches, batch distillation is inherently a dynamic process and its optimisation is a dynamic optimisation problem.

Our aim is to determine the time-optimal profile(s) of the optimisation variables by using the BOCOP (https://www.bocop.org/, http://control-toolbox.inria.fr/bocop-panel) software that discretises the problem into a large number of time intervals. A previous simplified model is available, which should be further developed by a more rigorous description of the phase equilibrium. Knowledge of C++ is advantageous but not required.

Disclaimer: This is an assignment of the Department of Building Services and Process Engineering. Contact Dr. László Hégely (hegely.laszlo@gpk.bme.hu) for more details.