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Forget Laplace Transforms
Forget Laplace Transforms
“Cruise control”
◦ The basic process control system should be able to handle
many disturbances, but not all
◦ Cruise control on your car can handle hills and curves, but
if there’s an accident ahead, you’ll have to stop the car
yourself
Safety Instrumented Systems (interlocks)
A good process control system will keep the process
running stably, even when hit with disturbances or upsets
This results in better efficiency, higher capacity, etc.
Improvements
to this temp
control strategy
resulted in a
steam savings
of $260K/yr,
or $1.1M NPV
Running at the optimal operating conditions
can maximize production rate and yield,
improve energy consumption, and is crucial
for product quality
However, these objectives often compete
◦ Best product quality may be attained at the cost of
additional energy consumption
Other objectives
◦ Pressure control, column loading, minimize steam
FFC
Tray 8 TC
LC Steam
VACUUM LINE
TO
HEADER
XC
PC
PC
LC
CONDENSATE
FC
HOT
CONDENSER FC FC
FC TO REACTORS
IX
SGI
REFLUX DRUM REFLUX
RATIO FY TI
TARGET COMPOSITION
LC FI
FI
PRODUCT
And more…
FEED • Plant-wide
supervisory
LC HC control
• Feed-forward to
600 PSIG
FC
other unit ops or
STEAM plant areas
LC
• Model predictive
control (MPC)
LC
CONDENSATE
• And so on…
PC
Beneficial to create a dynamic
simulation of the column LC
the column
◦ Provides initial tuning data
“Tray 8 – to – Steam” Control Strategy
“Tray 42 – to – Reflux” Control Strategy
Double-Ended Temperature Control Strategy
Once the control strategy framework has
been laid out, then you get into the “nuts and
bolts” of configuration
◦ Algorithm type
◦ Controller action
◦ Tuning (gain, time constants, etc)
Capital Project Involvement
For each unit operation, work closely with design
engineer and other project/operations
representatives to…
◦ Understand design intent, including steady-state flows,
desired recoveries, conversions, etc.
◦ Gain insight on potential process disturbances
◦ Define key control objectives
◦ Provide guidance on the actual process design
Determine residence times required for stable operation
Specify instrumentation placement
Other recommendations based on dynamic simulation and
other analysis (is desired steady-state operation feasible?)
Provide guidance on plant-wide control
◦ Decouple interactions as much as possible
◦ Control valve placement, piping layouts
◦ Inventory management
Instrumentation selection
Safety considerations, interlocks
“Control Narrative”
◦ Detailed document describing control objectives
and strategies for each unit operation, the plan for
managing inventory plant-wide, etc.
Remember: always think about process
control from the perspective of Chemical
Engineering fundamentals
Understand your process, as well as your
control objectives
◦ What needs to be controlled? Which variables effect
each other (and how)? Where does variability hurt
you most? Etc.
Remember there’s a dynamic component
Think about control early in design phase