Lactic acid is widely used in the food, chemical and pharmaceutical industries, and there is an increasing demand for lactic acid as the raw material of polylactic acid, which is a biodegradable polymer. The presence of high boilers and non volatility...
Lactic acid is widely used in the food, chemical and pharmaceutical industries, and there is an increasing demand for lactic acid as the raw material of polylactic acid, which is a biodegradable polymer. The presence of high boilers and non volatility of lactic acid makes the separation of lactic acid very difficult job. Esterification of lactic acid with methanol followed by hydrolysis of the separated methyl lactate was employed for the recovery of lactic acid. Reactive dividing wall column was proposed for the simultaneous reaction and separation. The intensified process poses a challenging control problem. Dynamic characteristics of the proposed process were examined and control systems were proposed to get a stable control performance for a disturbance in feed. Control performances of the proposed control systems were compared.