ChE 4745

Process Control and Dynamics

Chapter 1

Introduction to Process
Control
 What is a Process?

Process:
- A Heat Exchanger (heating/cooling)
- A Chemical/Biological Reactor (make
Chapter 1

petrochemicals or recombinant drugs)

- A Separator (Distillation column or a
chromatographic column for separating
proteins)
- A Feed or holding tank
- Human body
- A Car
- A Computer Drive
 Chemical Process Industries (CPI)

Hydrocarbon fuels
Chemical products
Chapter 1

Pulp and paper products

Agrochemicals
Man-made fibers
 Bio-Process Industries

Use micro-organisms to produce

useful products
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Pharmaceutical industry
Ethanol from grain industry
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
 CONTROL

P
Chapter 1

Gas stream Gas stream

Empty vessel
 Adjusting valves: Do you believe in automation?

Do we run around the

plant to adjust the
valves when required?
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Process pictures courtesy of Petro-Canada Products

 Adjusting valves: Do you believe in automation?

Central control room • Overview of

entire process
• Make
immediate
adjustment
anywhere
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• Safe location
• History of past
operation

Process pictures courtesy of Petro-Canada Products

 What is Process Control?

Outputs
Inputs
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(effects)
(cause)
Process

Output:
“off-specification”
Consequence:
Less profit!
 Benefits of Improved Control
New Controller
Old Controller

Concentration
Limit
Concentration

Limit yt
Chapter 1

pu
ri
m
I
Time Time
Improved Performance
Concentration

Limit
y
t
pu
ri
m
I
Time
 Objectives of Process Control
– Maintain a stable process operation

– Appropriate instruments/sensors are to be

implemented to operate under “fail/safe” conditions.

– Make sure no “disturbances” affect the process output(s).

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– Make sure when we make desired changes (set point) to the

process, it does achieve the desired goal.

– Make sure the process always remain within a “tight”

specification.

– Maximize the profitability of the plant

 Process Dynamics
a) Refers to unsteady-state or transient behavior.
b) Steady-state vs. unsteady-state behavior
i. Steady state: variables do not change with time
ii. But on what scale? e.g., noisy measurement
Chapter 1

c) ChE curriculum emphasizes steady-state or

equilibrium situations:
d) Continuous processes: Examples of transient behavior:
i. Start up & shutdown
ii. Grade changes
iii. Major disturbance: e.g., refinery during stormy or
hurricane conditions
 e) Batch processes
i. Inherently unsteady-state operation
ii. Example: Batch reactor
1. Composition changes with time
2. Other variables such as temperature could be constant.
Chapter 1

Process Control
Objective: to maintain or operate a process at the desired
operating conditions safely and efficiently, while satisfying
environmental and product quality requirements.
a) Large scale, continuous processes:
i. Oil refinery, ethylene plant, pulp mill
ii. Typically, 1000 – 5000 process variables are measured.
 Process Control (cont’d.)

iii. Examples: flow rate, T, P, liquid level, composition

iv. Sampling rates:
1. Process variables: A few seconds to minutes
Chapter 1

2. Quality variables: once per 8 hr shift, daily, or weekly

b) Manipulated variables
i. We implement “process control” by manipulating process
variables, usually flow rates.
1. Examples: feed rate, cooling rate, product flow rate,
etc.
ii. Typically, several thousand manipulated variables in a
large continuous plant
 Process Control (cont’d.)
c) Batch plants:
i. Smaller plants in most industries
1. Exception: microelectronics (200 – 300 processing
steps).
Chapter 1

ii. But still large numbers of measured variables.

d) Question: How do we control processes?
i. We will consider an illustrative example.
Chapter 1 1.1 Illustrative Example: Blending system

Notation:
• w1, w2 and w are mass flow rates
• x1, x2 and x are mass fractions of component A
 Assumptions:
1. w1 is constant
2. x2 = constant = 1 (stream 2 is pure A)
3. Perfect mixing in the tank
Control Objective:
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Keep x at a desired value (or “set point”) xsp, despite variations in

x1(t). Flow rate w2 can be adjusted for this purpose.

Terminology:
• Controlled variable (or “output variable”): x
• Manipulated variable (or “input variable”): w2
• Disturbance variable (or “load variable”): x1
 Design Question. What value of w2 is required to have
x  xSP ?

Overall balance:
0  w1  w2  w (1-1)
Chapter 1

Component 'A' balance:

w1x1  w2 x2  wx  0 (1-2)

(The overbars denote nominal steady-state design values.)

• At the design conditions, x  xSP. Substitute Eq. 1-2, x  xSP and

x2  1 , then solve Eq. 1-2 for w2 :
xSP  x1
w2  w1 (1-3)
1 xSP
 • Equation 1-3 is the design equation for the
blending system.
• If our assumptions are correct, then this value of w2 will keep x
at xSP . But what if conditions change?

Control Question. Suppose that the inlet concentration x1

Chapter 1

changes with time. How can we ensure that x remains at or

near the set point xSP ?
As a specific example, if x1  x1 and w2  w2, then x > xSP.

Some Possible Control Strategies:

Method 1. Measure x and adjust w2.
• Intuitively, if x is too high, we should reduce w2;
 • Manual control vs. automatic control
• Proportional feedback control law,
w2 t   w2  Kc x
 SP  x t 
(1-4)

1. where Kc is called the controller gain.

2. w2(t) and x(t) denote variables that change with time t.
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3. The change in the flow rate, w2 t   w2 , is proportional to

the deviation from the set point, xSP – x(t).
Chapter 1
 Method 2. Measure x1 and adjust w2.
• Thus, if x1 is greater than x1, we would decrease w2 so that
w2  w2 ;

• One approach: Consider Eq. (1-3) and replace x1 and w2 with

x1(t) and w2(t) to get a control law:
Chapter 1

xSP  x1 t 
w2 t   w1 (1-5)
1 xSP
Chapter 1
 • Because Eq. (1-3) applies only at steady state, it is not clear
how effective the control law in (1-5) will be for transient
conditions.

Method 3. Measure x1 and x, adjust w2.

• This approach is a combination of Methods 1 and 2.
Chapter 1

Method 4. Use a larger tank.

• If a larger tank is used, fluctuations in x1 will tend to be damped
out due to the larger capacitance of the tank contents.
• However, a larger tank means an increased capital cost.
Chapter 1
 1.2 Classification of Control Strategies

Table. 1.1 Control Strategies for the Blending System

Method Measured Manipulated Category
Variable Variable
Chapter 1

1 x w2 FBa
2 x1 w2 FF
3 x1 and x w2 FF/FB
4 - - Design change
Feedback Control:
• Distinguishing feature: measure the controlled variable
 • It is important to make a distinction between negative feedback
and positive feedback.
 Engineering Usage vs. Social Sciences
• Advantages:
 Corrective action is taken regardless of the source
Chapter 1

of the disturbance.
 Reduces sensitivity of the controlled variable to
disturbances and changes in the process (shown later).
• Disadvantages:
 No corrective action occurs until after the disturbance
has upset the process, that is, until after x differs from
xsp.
 Very oscillatory response, or even instability
 Feedforward Control:
Distinguishing feature: measure a disturbance
variable
• Advantage:
 Correct for disturbance before it upsets the process.
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• Disadvantage:
 Must be able to measure the disturbance.
 No corrective action for unmeasured disturbances.
 The key elements and principles of a feedback loop
– Cause and Effect

Exercise: The key

elements and
principles of a
Chapter 1

feedback loop
What is being measured?
valve L
sensor Is this a valid feedback
pump control loop?

pump valve
 The key elements and principles of a feedback
loop – Cause and Effect
Exercise: You want to control the level, but you can
only measure the flow in. What is your
strategy? Are you using feedback?
Chapter 1

sensor F

valve

pump

pump valve
 The key elements and principles of a feedback
loop – Cause and Effect
Exercise: The key elements and principles of a
feedback loop
What is being measured?
Chapter 1

Is this a valid feedback control loop?

Gas stream Gas stream

Empty vessel
 2. The key elements and principles of a
feedback loop – Cause and Effect
Exercise: The key elements and principles of a
feedback loop
What is being measured?
Chapter 1

Is this a valid feedback control loop?

v8

F2 F5
v3
T5 P1
T4
F1 T1 T3 F3 T6 F4

L1
v1 v5 v6 L2
T7
v2 v7

T2 T8
T9 F6
Hot Oil Hot Oil

v4
 The key elements and principles of a feedback
loop – Cause and Effect
Exercise: The key elements and principles of a
feedback loop
What is being measured?
Chapter 1

Is this a valid feedback control loop?

v8

F2 F5
v3
T5 P1
T4
F1 T1 T3 F3 T6 F4

L1
v1 v5 v6 L2
T7
v2 v7

T2 T8
T9 F6
Hot Oil Hot Oil

v4
 The key elements and principles of a feedback
loop – Cause and Effect
Exercise: The key elements and principles of a
feedback loop
Chapter 1

Hot process fluid

into shell
Cooling water into
tubes
We want to
control the hot
outlet
temperature.

Add a sensor and a valve to make this possible.

 The key elements and principles of a feedback
loop – Cause and Effect
Exercise: The key elements and principles of a
feedback loop
Chapter 1

Hot process fluid

Cooling water into shell
into tubes

We want to
control the hot
outlet
temperature.
TC

Add a sensor and a valve to make this possible.

 Acknowledgement
Dr. M. A. A. Shoukat Choudhury
Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, BUET
Chapter 1