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Methyl carbonate (EMC) and Diethyl carbonate (DEC), as excellent solvents for lithium-ion electrolytes, are synthesized by transesterification, and consecutive reaction seriously complicate optimization and control issues. Process synthesis, parameters optimization and advanced control are crucial points that should be addressed for this ill-conditioned and highly nonlinear system, which is the motivation and novelty of present work. With single-objective and multi-objective genetic algorithm, intensified processes for EMC and DEC production were optimized respectively with heterogeneous catalyst. And reactive dividing wall column achieved 23% and 13% total annualized cost reductions compared with reactive distillation for two target carbonates. Based on optimal steady-state solution, intelligent fuzzy logic and model predictive control of EMC and DEC production is conducted to clarify their respective strengths in intensified process with consecutive reaction. Sequential optimization for parameters of FLC was carried out with Integral of Squared Error (ISE) as objective. Finally, control performance of FLC and LPMC are compared with that under PID control, and results show that overshoot and transition time under FLC and LMPC are obviously mitigated, along with evident reduction in ISE. [Display omitted] • Process intensification realized for high-purity EMC and DEC production by embedding heterogeneous RD and RDWC. • Optimization carried out with effective single or multi objective genetic algorithm. • Intelligent fuzzy logic control and model predictive control developed for series intensified processes. • FLC and MPC shows superiority for controlling ill-conditioned system with high nonlinearity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As excellent solvents of lithum-ion electrolyte, ethyl-methyl carbonate (EMC) and diethyl carbonate (DEC) are synthesized through transesterification of dimethly carbonate (DMC) and ethanol. Process intensification, optimization and the corresponding control scheme of the synthesized process are essential when sustainability is becoming a necessity. In the present work, the intensified flowsheet for EMC and DEC production process was firstly proposed and optimized with conventional reactive distillation (RD) and reactive dividing wall column (RDWC), respectively. Compared with RD process, RDWC could achieve 25.3% and 8.2% total annualized cost reduction for EMC and DEC production process, respectively. And carbon dioxide emission could be decreased by 29.4% and 11.7% by further integrating RD and separation column into RDWC arrangement for DEC and EMC production. Then multi-loop PI control schemes were developed as benchmark and linear model predictive controller was designed to handle the persistent feed disturbance. The superiorities of model-based controllers for the strongly interactive and coupled system are demonstrated by the dynamic response comparisons in terms of settling time, overshoot and integral of squared error (ISE), especially for the controlled variables with poor control performance under conventional multi-loop PI control structure. To summarize, the comprehensive control performance index-ISE with MPC is reduced by 55.9%–99.1%, as compared to those under PI control strategy. • Sustainable processes were realized by RD and RDWC for EMC and DEC production. • Optimization was conducted for series sustainable processes with genetic algorithm. • RDWC shows superiority in energy efficiency enhancement and CO 2 emission reduction. • Controllability investigation for sustainable processes with novel control strategy. • Model predictive control shows to be effective for strongly coupled system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]