Understanding the operation of industrial MSF plants Part II: Optimization and dynamic analysis

This paper is a continuation of Part 1, which aims at widening the knowledge about MSF operation. The investigation includes studying the set-point optimization of an MSF plant. This is achieved by optimizing the steady-state model of the plant to determine the optimal operating conditions. The objective function is designed such that it determines the feasible values for the plant operational parameters that maximize the performance ratio. The investigation also includes studying the dynamic behavior of the process during open-loop and closed-loop operations. The dynamic analysis in both cases focuses on investigating the source and existence of operation stability due to blow-through or liquid pile-up. The entire analysis is based on simulation of a previously validated model for an MSF plant.