System Identification for a Pilot Scale Acetone and Isopropyl Alcohol Distillation Column

System identification is a technique to build an accurate and precise model of complex system from noisy data. It has been used to represent the relationship between output and input data and also to develop understanding on the internal working system. System identification can be applied in various fields of applications.
In this project the system identification is basically focused on the pilot scale of Acetone – Isopropyl alcohol distillation column by relate the control variables which are acetone top and bottom composition with the manipulated variables that are reflux flow rate and steam flow rate. This distillation process is to separate the mixture of acetone and isopropyl alcohol into individual components with certain composition. Basically this project involves both experimental work and simulation work.
System identification requires data from experimental work from Distribution Control System (DCS) in order to simulate the relation between input and output of the system by using System Identification Toolbox. In this report, the low order transfer function model is developed and represents the acetone – isopropyl alcohol distillation column. Model validation has been done to compare performance between the mathematical models with the actual plant. From this project the modelling of system identification of the pilot scale distillation column will be further used in the advanced process control application to improve the performance of the process control in the system.