Self-Optimizing Control of the HDA Process

Outline of the presentation

Process description.
Self-optimizing control procedure.
Self-optimizing control of the HDA process.
Concluding remarks.

Process Description
Benzene production from thermal-dealkalination of toluene (hightemperature, non-catalytic process).
Main reaction:
Toluene + H2 Benzene + CH4
Side reaction:
2Benzene Diphenyl + H2
Excess of hydrogen is needed to repress the side reaction and coke
formation.
References for HDA process:
McKetta (1977) first reference on the process;
Douglas (1988) design of the process;
Wolff (1994) discuss the operability of the process.

No reference about the optimization of the process for control purposes.

Process Description
Purge (H2 + CH4)

Compressor

H2 + CH4
Toluene

Mixer

FEHE

Toluene

Furnace

Benzene

Toluene
Column

Diphenyl

Cooler

PFR

Quench

Separator
CH4

Benzene
Column

Stabilizer

Self-Optimizing Control Procedure

Objective: Optimize operation
Find the optimum.
Implement the optimum (in practice).

Self-optimizing control:
Set point control which optimize the operation with acceptable loss.

Loss = J Jopt
Pure steady state considerations.
Stepwise procedure for evaluating the loss:

Degree of freedom analysis;

Cost function and constraints;
Identification of the most important disturbances (uncertainty);
Optimization;
Identification of candidate controlled variables;
Evaluation of loss;
Further analysis and selection.

Self-Optimizing Control of the HDA Process

Steady-state degrees of freedom
10

4
1
2

3
17
6

16

14

12

15

13

11

Self-Optimizing Control of the HDA Process

Cost Function and Constraints

The following profit is maximized (Douglass EP):

(-J) = pbenDben ptolFtol pgasFgas pfuelQfuel pcwQcw ppowerWpower - psteamQsteam +
(pv,iFv,i), i = 1,,nc.

Where:
Qcw = Qcw,cooler + Qcw,stab + Qcw,ben + Qcw,tol;
Qsteam = Qsteam,stab + Qsteam,ben + Qsteam,tol;
Fv,i = Fpurge + Dstab,i + Btol,i, i = 1,,nc.

Constraints during operation:

Production rate:
Hydrogen excess in reactor inlet:
Bound on toluene feed rate:
Reactor pressure:
Reactor outlet temperature:
Quench outlet temperature:
Product purity:
Separator inlet temperature:
+ some distillation recovery constraints

Manipulated variables are bounded.

Dben 265 lbmol/h.

FH2 / (Fben + Ftol + Fdiph) 5.
Ftol 300 lbmol/h.
Preactor 500 psia.
Treactor 1300 F.
Tquencher 1150 F.
xDben 0.9997.
95 F Tflash 105 F.

Self-Optimizing Control of the HDA Process

Identification of the Most Important Disturbances
Disturbance

Nominal Lowe Upper

r

1 - Gas feed temperature

100

80

112

2 - Toluene feed temperature

100

80

120

3 - Gas feed composition

0.95

0.90

1.00

4 - Benzene price

9.04

8.34

9.74

5 - Toluene recycle temperature

212

202

230

6 - Relative volatility boil-up stabilizer

36

32.4

39.6

7 - Relative volatility boil-up benzene

column

2.67

2.41

2.94

8 - Relative volatility boil-up toluene column

10

11

9 - Upper bound on toluene feed flow rate

300

285

315

Self-Optimizing Control of the HDA Process

Optimization

Self-Optimizing Control of the HDA Process

Optimization

Active constraint control:

(1) Benzene product purity (lower bound);
(2) Recovery (benzene in feed/benzene in top) in stabilizer (lower bound);
(3) Loss (toluene in feed/toluene in bottom) in benzene column (upper bound);
(4) Loss (toluene in feed/toluene in top) in toluene column (upper bound);
(5) Toluene feed flow rate (upper bound);
(6) Separator inlet temperature (lower bound);
(7) Inlet hydrogen to aromatic ratio (lower bound);
(8) By-pass feed effluent heat exchanger (lower bound).
9 remaining unconstrained degrees of freedom.

7
1
6
4

Self-Optimizing Control of the HDA Process

Identification of Candidate Controlled Variables
Candidate controlled variables:

Pressure differences;
Temperatures;
Compositions;
Heat duties;
Flow rates;
Combinations thereof.

137 candidate controlled variables can be selected.

17 degrees of freedom.
Number of different sets of controlled variables:

137
137!
21
=
=2.110
17

17!120!
8 active constraints (active constraint control).
What to do with the remaining 9 degrees of freedom?
Self-optimizing control implementation!!!

Analysis of linear steady-state model

from 9 us to 137 candidate outputs
Scale variables properly!
G: matrix with 9 inputs and 137 outputs
(Glarge)=5

Select one output at the time:

Select output corresponding to largest singular value (essentially
largest row sum)
Control this output by pairing it with an input (which does not
matter for this analysis), and obtain new matrix with one input
(and output) less
Final result:
(G9x9)=2.5 which is OK (close to 5)
Method is not optimal but works well

Self-Optimizing Control of the HDA Process

Further Analysis and Selection

Minimum singular value analysis of G gives that we should control (i.e. keep
constant)
(9) Hydrogen in reactor outlet flow;
(10) Methane in reactor outlet flow;
(11) Reboiler duty in benzene column;
(12) Condenser duty in toluene column;
(13) Compressor power;
(14) Separator feed valve opening;
(15) Separator vapor outlet valve opening;
(16) Separator liquid outlet valve opening;
(17) Purge valve opening.
13

17

8
9
5

10

15

7
1
12

16
3

11

14

Self-Optimizing Control of the HDA Process

Concluding Remarks
Demonstration of a self-optimizing procedure.
The economy in the HDA process is rather insensitive to disturbance in
the process variables.
A set of controlled variables is found from an SVD screening of the
scaled linearized model.