Industrial Process

Control
Forget Laplace Transforms

Control in the Real

World

Industrial process control involves a lot more

than just Laplace transforms and loop tuning

Combination of both theory and practice

Understanding of core engineering principles is

key (thermodynamics, mass transfer, etc)

Control design requires collaboration with

others to understand objectives and provide
process design guidance

Importance of both big picture and details

Why Do Control?

Maintain the process at the desired state or set

of conditions keep it out of the ditch
Safety
Ensure the process conditions minimize risk

Optimal operation
Running at the appropriate operating conditions improves
quality, yield, plant capacity, energy consumption, etc

Recover from upsets or disturbances

Its not just about optimization; its about

successful operation of the entire plant

Safety Considerations

A primary objective of the process control system is to

keep the process running at the desired operating
conditions
Presumably these conditions have been chosen appropriately
from a safety standpoint (hint, hint, design engineer )

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
theres an accident ahead, youll have to stop the car yourself
Safety Instrumented Systems (interlocks)

Achieving Optimal
Operation

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

Achieving Optimal Operation (2)

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

Advanced Control techniques can help with

balancing this tradeoff

Advanced Control

Advanced control applications provide an additional

layer of control, to meet a variety of control objectives
Feed-back composition control based on lab data
Feed-forward to other unit operations or plant areas
Perform complicated online calculations and close the loop to
manipulated variables
Plant-wide supervisory control strategies can balance rates,
maximize throughput, minimize conversion costs or energy
consumption
Model Predictive Control (MPC) incorporates a process model
to optimize operation when there are multiple input, output,
and disturbance variables

The Key to Process Control

Youre a chemical engineer

first and foremost!

The Key to Process Control

(2)

If you truly understand the chemical principles at

work in the process, then controlling it is easy!
Or easier, at least

You have to understand the fundamental stuff

thats going on in order to determine:
What the control objectives are in the first place, and
which variables should be controlled
What your control knobs are and how they will affect
the process as a whole how it all fits together
If you increase the steam flow to a distillation columns
reboiler, what will happen to the composition on tray 15?
What about the distillate? What about the pressure profile?

The Key to Process Control

(3)

Another way to think about it: the goal is to move

variability to some place where you dont care about it
If the temperature in a reactor cycles or varies, thats bad
We can control this temperature (keep it stable) by
implementing a control loop which manipulates steam flow to
the reactor jacket
Who cares if the steam flow moves around? The reactor
temperature is constant, and thats what we want.

Comes back to fundamental process understanding

Must understand where variability is acceptable, and where
its not
Must understand how everything fits together

Example
Distillation Control

Understanding the
Concepts

Need to understand manipulated variables

(control knobs) available to us

Chemical Engineering knowledge tells us

Increasing the reflux will help purify the distillate
The hotter the base, the more material will boil
overhead the entire composition profile will shift
The dynamics of liquid effects vs. vapor effects are
very different
The temperature on each tray is a function of the
trays composition and pressure

Composition Control

In order to maintain the desired top and

bottom compositions, it is important to
prevent the composition profile from
moving

The temperature profile of a column is

indicative of the composition profile
By selecting the right temperature to control, we
can actually peg the entire temperature profile
The appropriate temperature control strategy
(tray location, manipulated variable, etc) is highly
dependent on the individual column design

Determine Control
Objectives

Manage inventory
Need to ensure there is always reflux available
Likewise, need sufficient holdup in the column base

Maintain desired product compositions

What are acceptable impurity ranges?
Is one product stream more important?

Other objectives
Pressure control, column loading, minimize steam

Respond to certain upsets

What process upsets is this column likely to see?

Designing the Control

Strategy

First, obtain or develop a steady-state model

Need to know target compositions, normal flows,
pressures, the columns temperature profile, etc.
This gives you a snapshot of the desired operation
A steady-state model also yields insight on the control
knobs

Next, pair controlled variables with manipulated

variables
Based on Chemical Engineering knowledge
Utilizing information regarding key control objectives and
predicted disturbances

LC

FF
C

Tray 8

LC

TC

Steam

VACUUM LINE
TO
HEADER

PC

XC

PC

LC
CONDENSATE

FC

HOT
CONDENSER

FC

FC

FC
REFLUX DRUM
LC

SGI

IX

REFLUX
RATIO
TARGET

TO REACTORS

TI

FY
COMPOSITION

FI

FI

And more

PRODUCT
FEED

LC

HC
FC
600 PSIG
STEAM
LC
LC
CONDENSATE
PC

Plant-wide
supervisory
control
Feed-forward to
other unit ops or
plant areas
Model predictive
control (MPC)
And so on

Testing the Strategy

Beneficial to create a
dynamic simulation of the
column using this control
strategy

L
C

FFC

Allows for testing of the strategy

under various disturbance
scenarios
Gives valuable information
regarding dynamic behavior of
the column
Provides initial tuning data

Tray 8

L
C

TC

Steam

Feed Rate Disturbance (1)

Tray 8 to Steam Control Strategy

Feed Rate Disturbance (2)

Tray 42 to Reflux Control Strategy

Feed Composition
Disturbance

Double-Ended Temperature Control Strategy

Implementing the 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)

Application
Capital Project Involvement

Collaboration with Design

Engineer

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?)

Other Project Involvement

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.

Conclusion

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 theres a dynamic component

Think about control early in design phase