Advanced Process Control Technology Implementation in Ammonia Plant

HE Ren-Chu1, WAN Hao2, GU Xiao-Jing1

1. School of Mechatronics Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200072, P.R. China
E-mail: haray@shu.edu.cn
2. School of Environment and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, P.R. China
E-mail: wanhao@shu.edu.cn

Abstract: As a typical multivariable system, ammonia synthesis process is a very complicated system and these
variables are connected seriously. Traditional control forms like PID are very difficult to realize its ideal control
performance. This paper discusses the application of the plant-wide advanced process control and control strategy design
for complete chemical plants. Six MVC controllers have been designed for the ammonia synthesis process. The necessity
and feasibility of the control system building are analysed. The final industrial application result in good control
performance and economic benefit.
Key Words: Multivariable, Advanced process control, Ammonia, Process Control

1 INTRODUCTION 4˅H2 / N2 Ratio Controller

Advanced Process Control (APC) is generally defined as
the continuous and real-time implementation of
multivariable control(MVC) technology and operation
know-how by the use of based model predictive control
theory foundation and sufficient computing power in
dynamic plant environment to maximize plant profitability.
The application of APC technology to realistic industrial
plants is an active research area. Some realistic processes
have been used as popular test-beds, and evaluated the
performance of the resulting control structures[1].
More of such comparative case studies involving
application of more than one methodology are needed to
test the APC technology and to further improve them[2].
Despite the challenge and difficulty of the plant-wide
control problem, some important methodologies have
emerged in recent years that are effective and relatively
easy to apply[3-5].
We here consider the ammonia synthesis process given in
Fig. 1, which is a simplified version of an actual industrial
plant.
Ammonia Plant consists of five major sections: Primary
Reformer, Secondary Reformer, HT/LT Shift converters,
Benefield Section and Synthesis section. Ammonia plant
operation objective is to maintain the planned ammonia
production rate with minimum energy consumption. The
key focus of MVC strategy will be to provide a
combination of operating conditions, which will be
working towards reduction in energy consumption.
The multivariable controllers proposed for Ammonia plant
are:
1) Naphtha Vaporizer Controller
2) Primary Reformer Section Controller
3) Air DPI Controller
5˅Benefield Section Controller
6˅Synthesis Section Controller
2 BASE LAYER CONTROL
APC implementation in ammonia plant involved peculiar
challenge of integrating SLPC, DCS and Advanced Process
Control. While SLPC loops scan time is of the order of a
fraction of a second, the communication between DCS and
SLPCs require at least a second. As complex loop strategies
for steam to Carbon and Air to Fuel ratio control require
execution at faster frequency, it was decided to retain these
complex loop strategies at SLPC level. This paper had
already developed and engineered these strategies at SLPC
level. However, these strategies could not be commissioned
due to some practical problems and few shortcomings. As a
part of APC implementation, these strategies were
thoroughly reviewed, appropriately modified and
successfully commissioned by author with advise from site
officials and approval from some engineers of a ammonia
plant.
Two additional base layer schemes were proposed to
improve the regulatory control performance of the
Benefield and Synthesis Sections. These schemes were
implemented in DCS, so as to enable execution at higher
frequencies and to make it available always, irrespective of
the status of APC Controller.
Process Air Compressor Discharge Pressure Control:
Earlier, the compressor discharge pressure PIC-1101 was
controlled by manually varying HIC-1192. This loop was
tuned and PIC-1294 was put in “Auto” mode after putting
necessary clamps in consultation with site engineers.
Closed Loop Control of HIC-FI loops in Benefield and
Synthesis Sections.

978-1-4673-5534-6/13/$31.00 2013
c IEEE 1200
 P ro c e s s A ir
N a tu ra l G a s
S te a m
Fuel
A ux.
B o ile r
C o n v e rte r
P u rg e
Fig 1. Process diagram of ammonia plant
3 CONTROL STRATEGY
3.1 Naphtha Vaporizer MVC Controller
The process function of the naphtha vaporizer & sulfur
catch is to vaporize and superheat the sweet naphtha feed
and to remove the sulfur from the feed naphtha to avoid
poisoning of Primary Reformer catalyst. The Naphtha
Vaporizer APC Controller is intended to meet the following
operational objectives:
z The Controller shall work with the objective of
maintaining the outlet temperature within operator
set range during load changes.
z Maintain sulfur catch outlet pressure at operator
set ranges.
z Minimize the impact of the disturbances due to
feed naphtha density, plant load variations and tail
end pressure variations on the naphtha vaporizer
outlet temperature.
It was identified that the major disturbance to the naphtha
vaporizer is naphtha flow variations to the primary
reformer. This is currently handled by varying the sweet
naphtha flow to maintain naphtha header pressure and
vaporizer outlet temperature.
3.2 Primary Reformer MVC Controller
The process function of the primary reformer is to produce
the required hydrogen for ammonia production through
steam reforming of naphtha feed. The primary reformer
APC Controller is intended to meet the following
operational objectives:
z The Controller shall work with the objective of
maintaining process parameters such as primary
reformer outlet temperature, methane slips within
permissible range.
2013 25th Chinese Control and Decision Conference (CCDC)
S y n -G a s P ro d u c tio n
CO2
BFW
F la s h d ru m s
A m m o n ia
S y n th e s is L o o p
z Minimize and maintain Steam to Carbon ratio at
operator set ranges.
z Improve fuel-efficiency by minimizing excess
combustion-air in Primary Reformer while
maintaining the oxygen in flue gas within
permissible range.
z Minimize naphtha fuel consumption.
z Minimize the impact of the disturbances due to
feed naphtha density, plant load variations, MP
steam header fluctuations, fuel gas flow variations
on the Secondary Reformer outlet methane slips.
3.3 Air DPI MVC Controller
The Process objective is to maintain certain minimum
differential pressure across the airflow control valve so as
to avoid H2 backup, and to minimize the energy
consumption of process-air compressor. The Air DPI
Controller is intended to meet the following operational
objectives:
z The Controller shall work with the objective of
maintaining the DPI-1219 at operator set range.
z Maintain the airflow FIC-2209 control valve
opening within controllable range.
z Minimize the impact of the disturbances due to tail
end pressure variations and process airflow
variations to the air DPI.
3.4 H2/N2 MVC Controller
The Process objective is to maintain H2/N2 ratio at within
narrow range (Hydrogen : Nitrogen) in the synthesis gas
feed to the Ammonia-converter. The H2/N2 APC Controller
is intended to meet the following operational objectives:
z The Controller shall work with the objective of
tightly controlling H2/N2 ratio at the operator set
1201
 value so as to obtain optimum energy consumption Reformer Bed temperature and synthesis gas
and ammonia conversion. quality.
z Maintain the inert level in the loop.
3.5 Benefield Section MVC Controller
z Monitor the Secondary Reformer Bed temperature
for violation of constraints while adjusting airflow. The function of this section is to remove the CO2 from
z Minimize the impact of the disturbances due to makeup-gas using Benefield solution. The control objective
primary reformer outlet temperature, methane slip is to maintain the CO2 slip within permissible range and to
and process air pressure to the Secondary minimize the Benefield solution circulation and LP steam
consumption in Stripper reboiler.
Table 1. The standard deviation improvements after APC application
Std Devn.
APC ONLINE- BASECASE DATA
S. No. Tag Name Description improvement from
(Std. Dev.) (Std. Dev.)
Basecase
1 AFRATIO1.CPV A/F RATIO 0.008 0.309 97.47
2 AI-253.PV SEC.REFORMERO/L CH4 0.004 0.031 87.39
3 AI-254.PV METHANATOR I/L CO2 0.005 0.018 72.00
4 AI-255.PV METHANATOR I/L CO 0.001 0.016 94.12
5 AI-257.PV V257 O/L H2 ANLYS 0.031 0.140 77.58
6 AI-258.PV V257 O/L CH4 ANLYS 0.009 0.020 53.50
7 AI-412.PV AMM. CONV I/L CH4 0.084 0.168 50.12
8 AI-413.PV CONV. I/L HYDROGEN 0.082 0.366 77.60
9 AI-414.PV CONV. I/L NH3 0.051 0.069 25.55
10 ARI-451.PV H/N RATIO 0.012 0.063 80.35
11 DPI-219.PV DP ACROSS FCV 2209 0.008 0.141 94.41
12 FI-2271.PV FUEL GAS TO REF 71.273 100.784 29.28
13 FI-401.PV CIRC. SYNGASO/L 395.376 1728.285 77.12
14 FI-421.PV Q401 O/L STEAM 278.036 457.069 39.17
15 FIC-210.PV STM TO SEC.REF 0.936 70.454 98.67

z Maintain CO2 slip within permissible range during
process disturbances.
z Minimize Benefield solution circulation and steam
consumption in stripper reboiler while maintaining
the stripper bottom temperature within specified
range.
z Minimize the impact of the disturbances due to
lean solution temperature, plant load variations
and steam carbon ratio.
The major disturbance to this section is the plant load
variation, Steam to Carbon ratio changes and lean solution
temperature variations.
3.6 Ammonia Synthesis Section MVC Controller
The process function of this section is to synthesis ammonia
from the gas mixture containing N2 and H2 in the ratio close
to 1:3 by passing over the catalyst filled Ammonia
Converter. The control objective is to minimize the
synthesis converter I Bed inlet temperature and to have
tighter control of Bed temperature profile at specified
optimum values.
The Ammonia Synthesis Section APC application is
designed to meet the following operational objectives:
z Maintain the synthesis converter I Bed inlet
temperature at specified optimum value.
z Maintain the II bed inlet temperature within
specified range to maximize ammonia conversion.
z Maintain warm-shot flow control valve in
operable range by adjusting the pressure drops.
z Minimize the impact of the disturbances due to
converter inlet ammonia variations and feed flow
variations.
The major disturbance to the ammonia synthesis loop is
converter inlet ammonia% variations and feed flow
variations. The ammonia separation efficiency deteriorates
gradually due to oil built-up in the chiller thereby;
increasing the chiller temperature and ammonia% age in
converter feed gas. The chiller temperature and separation
efficiency is restored by periodic purging of the
accumulated high-boilers.
4 APC TECHNICAL EVALUATION
4.1 Performance Evaluation
All the Ammonia plant APC controllers were fully
commissioned and the controller performance-monitoring
period started from November 2007. All the relevant
process parameters were gathered by deploying Real-time
database, which has been installed in the site Control
System for data collection. A detailed evaluation of the
Plant data for 10 days since November 2007 was
undertaken and the controllers exhibited effective
performance in terms of stability and optimizing the Plant.
As before-APC base-case conditions were completely
different due to naphtha being heavier, it was decided to
conduct post audit by running the plant with base-case

1202 2013 25th Chinese Control and Decision Conference (CCDC)

conditions (without APC) and with APC controllers online
for the existing naphtha quality (lighter). However, to
account for base layer PID controllers tuning related
benefits, it was decided to compare post-APC Drives Power
consumption figures with those noted during base case
conditions. Post audit was conducted by running the plant
with APC online with S/C ratio of 3.3 and A/F ratio of 17.2
for 24 hours on 17th December and with base case
conditions on 18th December.

4.2 Improvements achieved Fig 4. Air to fuel ratio variation

The APC Benefits are achieved due to better control and
consistent optimization due to reduction in standard
deviation of key parameters in the Process Unit. Hence,
Standard deviation improvements achieved are the
indicators of the control performance achieved. Table 1. has
been presented here to document the standard deviation
improvements of some of the key process parameters that
have been obtained while APC is in operation. It can be
observed that there has been an all round reduction in the
standard deviation to the tune of average of 65%.
Fig 5. Reformer outlet temperature variation
Further, a considerable control improvement has been
achieved during steam disturbances due to soot blowing
operations and due to load changes in urea plant. Following
plots(Fig.2-Fig.7) depict the performance improvement of
Key process parameters while APC controllers are
“ONLINE” during November 2007 for 10 days as
compared to the base case conditions (27/06/07 till
06/07/07):

Fig 6. DP across variation

Fig 2. Naphtha vaporizer pressure variation

Fig 7. Process air pressure variation

Fig 3. Naphtha vaporizer temperature variation

Fig 8. CO2 stripper level variation

2013 25th Chinese Control and Decision Conference (CCDC) 1203


Fig 9. Converter inlet CH4% variation
4.3 Economic Benefit Scenarios
This paper consider the envelop around the Reformer
(inclusive of the main steam drum) alone and consider the
known effects of change in S/C ratio on steam consumption,
thereby, eliminating the vagaries of Steam Imbalance. The
effects of reduction in S/C ratio and A/F ratio on fuel
consumption are quantified by accounting for the
following:
z Reduction in Reformer steam consumption:
1.956 T/h
z Reduction in reformer (main drum) steam
generation: 1.709 T/h
z Reduction in Reformer fuel-naphtha: 102.87
Kg/h
z Increase in Benefield section steam
consumption: 0.12 T/h
z Reduction in combustion airflow to reformer:
3.59 T/h
The entire downstream heat recovered by heat exchange
with BFW returns to the main drum for steam generation.
Considering that no other steam consumer is adversely
affected by reduction in S/C and A/F ratios, this paper
estimate the change in IJT boiler load so as to meet the
changed steam demand.
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5 CONCLUSION
The APC implementation at an Ammonia Plant was
completed and the controllers were monitored for more
than a month. Based on the APC performance during this
monitoring period, the APC implementation in this
Ammonia plant can be called successful. The
characteristics that have been displayed are as follows:
z Stable Process Unit even during steam header
fluctuations due to soot blowing and variable
steam demand from Urea plant.
z Controllers consistently working to reduce fuel
consumption while maintaining the process
parameters within constraints.
z High Operator acceptance ever since the
controllers have been handed over.
A Fully Automated Ammonia plant requiring a very
minimum operator intervention as compared to Pre APC
scenario.
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