A BSc THESIS ON

PLANT-WIDE CONTROL OF THE

HYDRODEALKYLATION PROCESS
USING ASPEN PROCESS SIMULATORS.

BY

ADEGUNJU, ADEDAYO SULAIMON

CHE/2006/003

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY ILE-IFE
OSUN STATE NIGERIA

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR

THE AWARD OF B.SC (CHEMICAL ENGINEERING) DEGREE

FEBRUARY 2012.

CERTIFICATION PAGE
PLANT-WIDE CONTROL OF THE HYDRODEALKYLATION
PROCESS USING ASPEN PROCESS SIMULATORS
BY
ADEGUNJU, ADEDAYO S.
CHE/2006/003
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL
ENGINEERING IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE AWARD OF THE B.SC. HONOURS DEGREE IN CHEMICAL
ENGINEERING OF THE
OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY, ILE-IFE

ADEGUNJU, ADEDAYO S.

Date

Signature of Author

Mr A. Bamimore

Date

Project supervisor

Dr E. Betiku

Date

Head of Department

Dr. O.J Odejobi

Date

Department Thesis Coordinator

ii

Department of Chemical Engineering,

Obafemi Awolowo University,
Ile-Ife.
15th February, 2012.
Project coordinator,
Department Chemical Engineering,
Obafemi Awolowo University,
Ile-Ife, Osun State.
Dear Sir,
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
In accordance with the regulation of the department and the university, I hereby
submit this Chemical Engineering research thesis on Plant-Wide control of HDA
process using Aspen Process Simulators. This is in partial fulfilment of the
requirements for the award of B.Sc (Hons) degree in Chemical Engineering at the
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.
Thanks for your usual cooperation.
Yours faithfully,

ADEGUNJU, A.S
CHE/2006/003

iii

DEDICATION
To HIM that has the biggest PLANT (the universe) under His CONTROL
To my parents and siblings as a proof that the future is bright because ALLAH IS IN
CONTROL

iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
To Almighty Allah be the highest praises for his providential care in helping me to
accomplish the present feat despite all odds.
As must ever genuinely be the case, a hearty THANK YOU goes to my supervisor Mr
A. Bamimore an understanding and deeply concerned man who imparted to me a
great deal of academic exposure in the process of our friendly interaction that
eventually led to the production of this thesis. May Almighty God bless him in all his
life endeavours.
I wish to place on record the deep love, genuine care, hearty concern and mature
understanding untiringly offered by my parents, Mr and Mrs M.I ADEGUNJU. May
you live long to reap the fruits of your labour. (Ameen)
A man of many companions may come to ruin but there is always a friend that will
stick closer than a brother, but in my case I have friends like Seun Aluko, Ishola
Esther, Sonubi

Temitope, Oloyede

Aderonke

Idayat,

Kasim

Shamsudeen,

Animashaun Hameed, Lasisi Lukman, Sogunle Olalekan, and it goes on and on like
that. It is a wonderful adventure with you all.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page........................................................................................................i
Certification Page...........................................................................................ii
Letter of transmittal........................................................................................iii
Dedication......................................................................................................iv
Acknowledgement..........................................................................................v
Table of contents.............................................................................................vi
List of figures..................................................................................................viii
List of tables.....................................................................................................ix
Abstract............................................................................................................x
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction....................................................................................1
1.1.

Background of the work......................................................1

1.2.

Objectives............................................................................3

1.3.

Scope of the work................................................................4

1.4.

Justification of the research..................................................4

CHAPTER TWO: Literature review

2.1. Definitions of plant-wide control...............................................5
2.2. History of plant-wide control.....................................................6
2.3. Design questions o n plant-wide control....................................6
2.4. Previous work on HDA process.................................................8
2.5. Control Structure Design...........................................................13
CHAPTER THREE: Methodology...................................................................20
3.1. Unit-based Control Design Procedure......................................20
3.2. Simulation of HDA process......................................................21

vi

3.3. Plant-wide control design objective.......................................21

3.4. Controller design and tuning..................................................26
CHAPTER FOUR: Steady state and dynamic simulation and control structure
performance evaluation
4.1. Steady State Simulation......................................................27
4.2. Dynamic simulation............................................................30
4.2.1. Equipment sizing......................................................31
4.2.2. Aspen dynamics environment and plant-wide control
Structure..................................................................32
4.3. Control structures performance evaluation.......................35
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1. CONCLUSION.............................................................62
5.2. RECOMMENDATION................................................63
BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................................64.
APPENDIX A.............................................................................................65
APPENDIX B.............................................................................................70

vii

LIST OF FIGURES
2. HDA Process Flow sheet..................................................................19
4.1. Aspen Plus flow-sheet for HDA process.......................................28
4.2. Aspen Plus flow-sheet for HDA process ( with bypass)................29.
4.3. Aspen Dynamics flow-sheet for CS1.............................................33
4.4. Aspen Dynamics flow-sheet for CS2.............................................34
4.5a. Closed loop response of CS1 to 10oF increase in reactor inlet
temperature............................................................................................37
4.5b. Closed loop response of CS1 to 2oF decrease in reactor inlet
temperature............................................................................................41
4.6a. Closed loop response of CS2 to 10oF increase in reactor inlet
temperature............................................................................................45
4.6b. Closed loop response of CS2 to 2oF decrease in reactor inlet
temperature...........................................................................................50
4.7a. Closed loop response of CS1 to 47 lb/h rise in recycle toluene
flowrate................................................................................................54
4.7b. Closed loop response of CS2 to 82 lb/hr rise in recycle toluene
flowrate................................................................................................58

viii

LIST OF TABLES
1. Steady state controlled variables selected by various authors.................12
4.1. Pairing of controlled and manipulated variables...................................32
A1. Data of HDA process for simulation......................................................65
A2. Column Specifications...........................................................................68
A3. Equipment data......................................................................................69
B1. Table of parameter tuning of HDA process(CS1)..................................72
B2. Table of parameter tuning of HDA process( CS2).................................75

ix

ABSTRACT
The connections between the various units of a chemical processing plant need to be
put into consideration in control design because the behaviour of a complete plant is
not only given by its individual units. Though if the units of a plant are connected in
series, it is easy to predict the behaviour of a plant from the behaviour of the
individual units, this does not imply that the units can be operated like individual
units. A plant-wide control strategy in which all the controllers in the system are well
integrated is thus proposed.
This plant-wide control strategy was applied to the HYDRODEALKYLATION
PROCESS which is a model of an industrial chemical process for the purpose of
studying and evaluating process control technology with the aid of ASPEN PROCESS
SIMULATORS. The process steady state design was modelled in ASPEN PLUS, and
subsequently exported to ASPEN DYNAMICS for control structure design. The two
control structures developed were tested for robustness and stability by using the
reactor inlet temperature and toluene recycle rate disturbances.
The results showed that the two control structures provide satisfactory disturbance
rejection in terms of overshoot, settling time and stability. The reactor inlet
temperature change and the toluene recycle rate did not have an appreciable effect on
the production rate and purity of benzene. This showed that a good control structure
with adequate tuning does well in the face of disturbances.

xi