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Originally appeared in: June 2008, pgs 47-52. Used with permission.
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n recent years, process designs have become increasingly complex, integrated and interactive. Recycles, heat integration and minimum holdups are common design features. While such designs provide for optimal steady-state operation, they present particular challenges for dynamic control. Whereas steady-state simulation based on first principles has underpinned process designs for many years, only recently has dynamic simulation become a mature desktop technology. Typical applications of dynamic simulation are relief studies, operator training, testing DCS configurations, developing operating procedures and more recently, advanced process control.17 This article explores the use of dynamic simulation for developing and analyzing the basic and model-predictive control (MPC) scheme for a propylene/propane (PP) splitter.
Problem definition. The PP splitter, located at the back
PC-414 LC-129
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Total reux
LC-119 FC-202 Propylene Minor reux FC-187 MISO Major reux LC-116
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Feed
FC-186
end of the FCC complex, separates a C3 stream into a top product containing 99.5% pure propylene and a bottom product containing 98.5% pure propane. To achieve the tight product specifications, the PP splitter is 90-m tall, comprises 181 trays and operates at very high reflux ratios. An energy-saving feature is the heat pump that reboils the tower bottoms by condensing hot compressed overhead vapors. A process flow diagram including the basic control scheme, as provided by the process vendor, is shown in Fig. 1. As shown in the figure, bottom level is controlled by the bottom draw rate and compressor surge vessel level is controlled by top product rate. Analyzers are present on both top and bottom product streams. Bottom product quality is controlled automatically using minor reflux whereas top product quality is controlled by operator adjustments to the major reflux. The aim of the work presented in this article was to implement MPC for the control of top and bottom qualities. In addition, the MPC application is to drive the process to an economic optimum while respecting all equipment constraints. The process economics are governed by the recovery of higher-valued propylene at the expense of energy consumption in the compressor. In the case of the PP splitter, reliable plant step test data on which to base an MPC design are very difficult to obtain for several reasons. First, the very long settling times and the frequency of daily disturbances prohibit the unit from ever reaching a true steady state. In addition, the tight quality specifications prohibit
FC-232 Propane
FIG. 1
steps of sufficient magnitude to achieve a signal-to-noise ratio that is acceptable for model identification. For these reasons, it was decided to develop the MPC model from data generated by a dynamic simulator instead of the actual process.
Process simulation. The starting point for any dynamic
simulation study is a sound steady-state simulation. In this case, a steady-state model of the PP splitter, heat pump and ancillary equipment was available from previous process engineering studies. The steady-state model was calibrated against averaged plant data as illustrated by the temperature profile shown in Fig. 2. Starting from the steady-state model, the dynamic model was constructed by specifying additional engineering details including pressure/flow relationships and equipment dimensions.8 In addition, all basic controllers were included in the model and configured exactly as they are in the plant. The dynamic solver
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parameters were configured with the right number of flash calculations per tray residence time and the tray weir height was adjusted to reflect the plant tray holdup.
Controller conditioning. The first candidate MPC structure
considered was that in which both minor and major refluxes are used as manipulated variables (MVs). The primary controlled variables (CVs) are top quality (mole % propane in propylene) and bottom quality (mole % propylene in propane). Using the steady-state simulation described, the 22 matrix of gain relationships between the 2 MVs and 2 CVs was constructed. From a condition analysis of this matrix, it was very quickly concluded that this matrix was very nearly collinear on the basis that both minor and major refluxes act equally on cutpoint. This means that aggressive moves in both refluxes will be made by any such controller utilizing this MV pair in trying to keep top and bottom qualities on specification.
Basic controller configuration. Alternative basic control
configurations were considered to improve matrix conditioning. In the first configuration (Fig. 3), bottom level is cascaded to the major reflux controller. In this case the bottoms flow is made available as the cutpoint MV and minor reflux is the fractionation MV. In the second configuration, bottoms level is cascaded to the minor reflux controller.
28 26 Temperature, C 24 22 20 18 16 14 12
FC-185 Total internal reux LC-129
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FIG. 2
Feed
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Propane
FIG. 3
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has a significant effect on predicting both the top and bottom qualities. Variation in feed quality is captured instead by use of the prediction error measurement of differential temperature between two points in the column. The points were chosen based on both speed and magnitude of dynamic response to feed quality changes, as demonstrated in the dynamic simulation. The steady-state model was also used to demonstrate that the linearity of the model in the composition region of interest could be improved somewhat by the use of logarithmic transforms.
Tuning and commissioning. Tuning MPC controller dynamic parameters was performed by extensive simulation in the MPC simulation environment. Tuning factors were established that provided an appropriate trade-off between controller speed and robustness. Steady-state optimization cost factors for each MV were obtained from the steady-state model by calculating the difference in profitability between the base and MV offset cases. Mar-
matrix is shown in Fig. 6. Note that the sixth step test variable, feed temperature, was dropped since noise in this instrument
FIG. 6
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FIG. 7
MPC interface.
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Commissioning complete
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FIG. 8
ket prices for products and energy were used in establishing the profitability function. Finally, the MPC controller was built and connection to the DCS was established, the interface for which is shown in Fig. 7. Due to the extensive simulation effort in the MPC offline environment, and the fact that the underlying rigorous model of the PP splitter provided a sound basis on which to build the controller, next to no additional controller tuning was necessary during commissioning.
J.M. Ferrer Almazn holds an MSc degree in electrical engineering (University of Zaragoza, Spain). He worked four years for Dow Chemical at its Tarragona site as a process control engineer, three years at EDS in automatic warehouse systems and seven years at Aspentech developing applications of dynamic simulators in advanced control, ESD design, controllability studies, DCS checkout and operator training simulators.
Article copyright 2008 by Gulf Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A. Not to be distributed in electronic or printed form, or posted on a Website, without express written permission of copyright holder.