Session No. 90, Paper No.

90D

PROCESS CONTROL AND OPTIMIZATION OF AN ETHYLENE CRACKER

By

Simon Lopez
BP Amoco, PO Box 21, Bo’ness Road
Grangemouth, FK3 9XH, U.K.

and

Pete Sharpe
MDC Technology Inc., 15333 JFK Boulevard, Suite 510
Houston, TX 77032, U.S.A.

and

Douglas Prior
MDC Technology Ltd.
Stratford Rd., Riverside Park
Teeside, TS2 1PT, U.K.

Prepared for presentation at

American Institute of Chemical Engineers

12th Ethylene Producers Conference
2000 Spring National Meeting
Atlanta, GA
Wednesday, March 8, 2000
Session: Ethylene Process Control Session

UNPUBLISHED

“AIChE shall not be responsible for statements or opinions

contained in papers or printed in its publications”
Introduction

Closed loop optimization is a valued and established technology at BP Amoco’s Grangemouth

site. Due to a major plant expansion their have recently replaced their G4 ethylene plants
optimizer. This expansion included a complete DCS replacement, increased use of advanced
process control (APC), and real-time optimization (RTO) systems, plus, the replacement
resolved year 2000 compliance issues with the existing distributed control system (DCS).

The original G4 optimizer has been in use for over 8 years and benefits from the original G4
optimizer are generally accepted to be approximately £0.75 million/year. The KG plant, also at
the Grangemouth site has operated with an optimizer for over 6 years. Closed loop optimzation is
a valued and established technology at the BP Amoco Grangemouth site.

RTO+, MDC Technology’s real-time optimization technology was chosen by BP Amoco based
on the success of its application in the closed-loop optimization of the KG plant. Since the
installation of KG’s optimizer in 1993, the plant has been in continuous use and boasts average
on-line times exceeding 90%.

BP Amoco set out to provide an accurate and robust process model of the G4 plant, minimize the
period during which optimization is out of service as a result of process changes and provide data
links between the latest DCS technology and the G4X optimizer. In addition BP Amoco also
wanted to provide full plant closed-loop optimization on a 10 min frequency.

The project was designed in two phases. The first phase re-engineered the existing G4X process
model. This was needed to simulate the expansion to the G4 plant and to provide online closed-
loop optimization. The second phase migrated the plant to the new DCS and APC systems. It
combined the best aspects of RTO and APC to generate more benefits than either option alone.

Expansion of the G4X Site

BP Amoco’s G4 plant consisted of 12 HGO4 furnaces and a Lummus SRT furnace attached to 3
feed headers. These headers provide the furnaces with gas (propane/ethane mix), butane, or
naphtha feed to meet the ethylene production demand. The quench tower, cracked-gas
compression, and effluent separation areas are based upon a typical Stone & Webster Inc. design.

The expansion of the G4 site with the G4X project involved the following process changes:

? Installation of two new Stone & Webster Twin Cell Ultra Selective Conversion (USC)
furnaces.

? Installation of a new C3 hydrogenation unit.

? Decommissioning of three of the existing HGO4 furnaces.

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? Installation of a new cracked-gas compressor water-wash system, similar to the one installed
on KG.

The existing offline model for the G4 plant was used as the base point for the re-engineering of
the G4X optimizer (this was known as VAX/VMS platform). BP Amoco migrated the system to
the latest version of RTO+ hich operates under Window NT 4.0, to gain a complete optimization
solution.

The integration of the process changes required a major overhaul of the existing model. These
changes were made prior to the October 1998 shutdown, when the process changes were
incorporated in the plant.

Three weeks later when the plant came back on-line the RTO+ model was set for on-site
installation. Installation of the software and hardware, setting up the links to read live data from
the plant, and subsequent commissioning of the on-line model was completed in 2 months. Also
configured prior to commissioning the system on site were other aspects of the optimization
system, such as data reconciliation and parameter updating.

Development

The RTO+ model's flexibility was demonstrated in its ability to accommodate an already trusted
model that BP Amoco possessed.

Over past year, BP Amoco have developed an in-house yield model to predict the furnace
effluent. This model was based upon several input parameters developed over 3 decades of
experience operating HGO4 furnaces.

As technology progressed, this yield model was combined into an asset-wide routine used to
simulate all types of cracking furnaces used on the Grangemouth site, including the new USC
furnaces on the G4 plant.

This Grangemouth yield model (GYM) uses several parameters to determine the mass fractions
in the dry furnace effluent: feed type, feed rate per coil, dilution-steam rate, coil-outlet
temperature (COT), coil-outlet pressure, and other physical quantities, such as coke thickness in
the coils and the transfer line exchangers (TLXs).

During the design phase for the G4X optimizer project, BP Amoco expressed a desire to
continue to use this model within the RTO+ infrastructure. After many years of use, the BP
Amoco staff came to rely on and trust this model. The staff used it for optimization, planning,
and furnace modeling at the Grangemouth site.

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BP Amoco provided the GYM model as a Windows NT dynamic link library, which was easily
incorporated into RTO+. Hence, the RTO+ process model is not limited to furnace modeling via
MDC Technology's own furnace calculations; it can also simulate the furnace using GYM if
desired.

This choice allows more flexibility than a lot of other simulation systems.

Solution

Each new system comprises six on-line processes running a different RTO+ model at 5-minute
intervals. These processes are:

? A model process. This process performs data reconciliation, and provides a simulation of the
current plant performance. It also provides information about constraint and variable limits
for the optimizer. This process runs every 5-min.

? The optimizer process. This process performs the online, closed-loop optimization of the G4
plant. It runs every 10-min.

? Three processes to keep the plant model tuned to current plant performance. These processes
update parameters in the three compressor systems, the four main separation columns, and
the feed-gas header. They run every 15-min.

? A severity process. While the RTO+ model of the furnace uses COT to determine the furnace
effluent, the APC systems control the severity (methane to propylene ratio). This process
uses the RTO+ model to generate gradients around the current point so that the DCS can
correctly model the severity for the APC systems. It runs every 10-min.

The system installed takes data from the plant, via Honeywell’s PHD (Process History Database)
system, and transfers it into the six RTO+ processes via MDC Technology’s DXS utility.

The data is processed and used in the models. The results are written back out to PHD, and from
there, are implemented as setpoints for the existing controllers.

This asynchronous approach to optimization works by separating the different aspects so that
each process can work independently of the others. This way, no one process is dependent on
another having run. All the processes make use of a shared data storage area, in this case, PHD.
Text files and shared computer memory are other means of sharing data between processes.

The model updating processes form part of the performance monitoring ability of RTO+. As the
various columns and compressors are operated, a certain amount of fouling occurs that leads to a
degeneration of performance.

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RTO+ can help monitor the degradation over a period of time by adjusting certain key
parameters to get a “best fit” to data taken over a long period of time. An example of condenser
fouling performance monitoring is shown in the diagram, below. In the case of a column, the
Murphree efficiency is used to adjust the number of theoretical plates. For a condenser, an
efficiency to adjust the UA value is used.

With each update of the parameters, the process model is pushed closer to how the plant is
currently performing. Monitoring these parameters can give the users an idea of how the process
has degraded over a long period of time.

Above: Monitoring of Condenser Fouling.

The Process Model

The G4 plant is a typical Stone & Webster designed ethylene plant with a well-defined
sequential separation section. The RTO+ process model uses many standard unit model
operations to simulate the G4 plant.

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Above: Optimizer Variables.

Optimizer variables are shown in the above diagram. The following areas are covered in the
model:

? The feed area. Various streams supply each of the three feed headers, such as Mossmorran
ethane or Kinneil dry gas. Each of these headers is included in detail within the model to
determine the composition of the feed to the furnaces.

? The furnaces. The furnaces are represented in the model by either BP Amoco's GYM routine
or MDC Technology’s proprietary furnace calculations. The TLX exchangers are included
here to ensure an enthalpy balance across the area, as well as to determine the amount of
EHP (extra high-pressure) steam raised.

? The quench tower. The quench-tower area is modeled to determine the composition and flow
to the cracked-gas compressors. An enthalpy balance over the quench area and the quench-
water circuit is central to the model to determine the amount of primary quench water
required.

? Cracked-gas compressor train. This compressor train generally forms the limiting constraints
on the operation of the ethylene plant, so the representation is necessarily more complex.
Each of the compressor stages is modeled separately; each compressor stage has separate
tuning factors to allow the model to more accurately match plant behavior.

? The coldbox and de-methanizer. The coldbox area is very well specified in terms of available
data. Because of this, the coldbox area is modeled extensively.

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? De-ethanizer, C2 hydrogenation, and C2 splitter. The separation of the main products is
modeled to determine the number of theoretical plates and the reflux ratio. The bottoms
impurity specification of the ethylene splitter, the amount of ethylene in the ethane stream,
can be used as an optimizer variable should the need arise.

? De-propanizer C3 hydrogenation, and de-butanizer area. Many plant measurements were

available for these areas. These data include quality analyses on the overheads and bottoms
streams. These measurements were the used as the basis for modeling these areas.

The G4 and KG share a propane/propylene purification system. For the purposes of the process
model, the secondary de-ethanizer and C3 splitter columns are not included with the other
separation sections because the feeds to these towers do not come solely from the G4 plant, but
from the KG plant, as well.

The process model is a modular sequential model, which means that many of the internal
recycles are not explicitly solved, but are solved by the optimizer algorithm. The optimizer also
performs the pressure balance along the C-1 compressor train.

The plant model will not necessarily match the plant exactly as a result of the dynamic nature of
the plant. Also the model uses steady state approximations to estimate plant operations.

The RTO+ system includes a proprietary constraint updating strategy to take account of any
inconsistencies in the plant model. This allows the optimizer to contain a true representation of
the process plant.

The model process sets up the limits for the variables and the constraints used by the optimizer.
It also defines the base point to determine the incremental benefit provided by the optimizer.
Data passes between the online processes via PHD and text files.

The Optimizer Process

The optimizer can be used in several ways: to solve the plant model, to provide online, closed-
loop optimization of the plant, and to develop “what-if” offline studies.

The scope for optimization on the G4 plant is fairly well defined. The optimizer variables are
primarily concerned with the front end. The feed rates to each of the furnaces, the steam-to-oil
ratio, and the COT are the handles with which the optimizer and the operators control the plant.

Also, for those furnaces on the gas header, the crossover temperature (XOT) is equally
important.

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Other variables included in the optimization problem are the C-1 suction pressure, which
effectively controls the operation of the cracked gas compressor system, the propylene-
refrigeration compressor suction pressure, and the “soft” targets on the de-ethanizer, C2 splitter,
and de-propanizer columns.

The suction pressure of the ethylene-refrigerant compressor is not included as an optimization

variable because there is no physical means of implementing the setpoints on site.

Because the dynamics of the G4 plant are much slower than that of the KG plant, where the
optimizer runs every 3 min., the optimizer can run at a much slower rate, every 10 min., and still
capture the relevant behaviour of the plant.

The intention is to allow the optimizer to gently nudge the plant towards the optimal position,
given the current operating conditions. For closed-loop optimization on the G4X optimizer, a
limited number of iterations are given. This limits the time that the optimizer takes to run. It also
provides a quick answer that, while not optimal, tends towards it.

It was felt that 90% of the benefits in 50% of the time would be better than achieving the
optimum. This way, the optimizer can still respond to disturbances without losing sight of the
ultimate objective.

The objective function of the optimizer is an economic target constructed from the actual costs of
the feed and the product prices. Utility costs are also taken into account.

These values are taken from the DCS where the operators can keep them up to date. This way,
the optimizer can keep in touch with economic changes in the business.

Benefits

Approximately £1.5 million/year benefits from the KG optimizer are estimated. Although the
expansion project has closed the gap somewhat, G4 is still a smaller plant, therefore the benefits
from this plant are smaller.

While the incremental advantage per optimizer run will be small, the benefit generally associated
with RTO is increased throughput by 3-4%/year.

Other benefits can be gained by using the optimizer as an offline "what-if” tool. This can
determine the worth of alternative operating conditions without disturbing current plant
performance.

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Phase II

RTO provides many benefits over APC alone, and vice versa. Although APC can capture the
dynamics of an area, the model generated only encompasses a very small section of the overall
process, and by necessity must be a linear model. RTO provides the ability to simulate the whole
plant using a non-linear, sequential modular approach. Although these models are steady state,
the non-linear approach enables better approximations to the gradients of the plant. Phase II
means to combine the best aspects of both approaches to control the plant.

With Phase II of the project, different system architectures are in place. Data passes to RTO+ via
the same mechanism, but rather than writing setpoints down to the controllers directly, the results
are written as a set of ranges for a coordination layer.

This coordination layer then takes the set-ranges, generated by RTO+, and implements the set-
ranges as controlled or manipulated variable range limits for the APC system, in a coordinated
fashion with respect to the process dynamics. With RTO+, the steady-state approach has to be
taken to enable swift response. Hence, this second layer takes the steady-state optimal set-ranges,
and incorporates the dynamic models of the controllers to generate a better response than either
APC or RTO alone. The coordination layer is also used as conduit for the on-line updating of
process gains, where there is significant non-linearity. The gradients are required to predict
behaviour around the current point, since the controllers do not have a complete and accurate
model of the area, only a dynamic data-driven model. This enables the optimisation to take place.

This is a two-way co-operative deal, however, and the intention is for the APC systems to
provide steady-state predictions for some of the back-end data so that the dynamics of the plant
can be taken out of the steady-state RTO+ model. This, in turn, provides better approximations
to the gradients, and enables the APC optimisation to perform better.

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