Web-Accessible Liquid Distillation Column Temperature Monitoring and Control using ilab Shared Architecture

The liquid distillation column is a research facility used in chemical and processing engineering at University of Dar es salaam. Originally it has been manually operated require the presence of operators all-time. It is used to control and take measurements data under hazardous operating condition. In this work the research equipment has been automated and its control and monitoring can now operate online, hence shared by many researchers. In this paper, the major findings were data acquisition device (DAQ) NI USB 6211 for acquiring temperatures and generate signals for control purposes, and thermocouples type K sensors were used since they can operate at very wide temperature range of -270 to 1370. The main parameter which has been monitored is temperature at various parts of the distillation column including temperature of the top/bottom and reboiler temperature. The approach used was computer controlled using Data acquisition device and labVIEW graphical programming language as standalone control system to extent it control and monitoring temperature online. The Interactive ilab shared architecture has been used to make the system accessible remotely. Labserver was created then interfaced with distillation column using NI USB 6211 as a data acquisition device. The DAQ was configured for temperature acquisition and signal generation for monitoring temperature and flux flow control respectively. For the remotely operation, the Labserver was connected to the LAN/internet and the distillation column was accessed through web services.