@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Online energy
costs optimiser at
petrochemical plant
Marcos Kihn, Diego Ruiz and Carlos Ruiz,
Soteica Europe S.L., Spain, and Antonio
Garca Nogales, Intercontinental Qumica
S.A. (INTERQUISA), Spain, examine how
an online model at the control room can help
to reduce energy costs at a chemical plant.
I
NTERQUISA operates a complex steam, fuel gas
and hot oil network at its chemical complex that
produces puried terephthalic acid (PTA) at San Roque
(Spain), also exchanging steam, water and fuel gas with
neighbouring sites. The operation of such a complex
energy network presents the challenge of nding the
optimal overall economic performance by manipulating the
steam production of their own boilers, the export/import
of steam, the fuel gas import and the choice between hot
oil and steam for process heating, all within equipment,
process and contractual constraints.
INTERQUISA decided to implement Soteicas Visual
MESA software, an online energy management system that
helps to reduce operating costs.
1-6
A complete Visual MESA
model of the site was developed, containing the main
optimisation variables and constraints identied during the
project execution.
One of the key factors for the successful
implementation and effective energy costs reduction
was the use of the online model at the control room on a
day to day basis. Plant operators are implementing the
recommendations generated by the software, which is
automatically executed at a given frequency, several times
along the shift. Operators are responsible for changing
the corresponding controller set points and therefore
performing the site-wide real time optimisation.
This article summarises the main project
implementation steps and comments in some detail on
several important aspects related to the online model use
and interaction with the control system.
Chemical plant energy system
description
INTERQUISA is the only producer in Spain of puried
terephthalic acid (PTA) and puried isophthalic acid
(PIPA), raw materials for the manufacture of polyesters. It
manufactures and markets 650 000 tpy of PTA and
80 000 of PIPA. It operates a complex energy system with
the following main features:
Five steam pressure levels.
Three fired boilers.
Three hot oil furnaces.
Process heat exchanger trains that use steam and hot
oil.
A fuel gas system that uses refinery gas purchased
from a neighbour site, offgas and natural gas.
A cogeneration unit, including a gas turbine with its
heat recovery steam generation system.
Figure 1 is a screen capture of the main view of the
Visual MESA model graphical user interface (GUI). By
double clicking on the respective icons of each plant area
the operators can navigate through the model and inspect
the details of each piece of equipment, sensor, header
or line. Figure 2 shows the detail of the boilers plant and
Figure 3 shows the model representation of the hot oil
distribution network.
Project methodology
An implementation project begins with an initial data
collection stage that includes the piping and instruments
l
l
l
l
l
l
www.hydrocarbonengineering.com Reprinted from May2008 HYDROCARBONENGINEERING
Reprinted from HYDROCARBONENGINEERING May2008 www.hydrocarbonengineering.com
diagrams, a tags list from the real time database (Plant
Information System) and equipment data sheets. Software
installation and connection to the Plant Information System
is also done at the beginning of the project. Control System
review is an important project step and it is detailed below.
A complete model of the overall Energy System is built.
The model includes the complete site-wide fuel, steam,
boiler feed water, condensate and electrical systems. All
the steam pressure levels are modelled as well as part
of the production units utilities network, with a high level
of detail including all the consumers and suppliers to the
respective steam, boiler feed water, hot oil and condensate
headers.
Electricity and fuel supply contract details are easily
included in the model, with the electricity market cost
updated from the real time database system tags. The
fuel gas network is also modelled, as it is involved with
the steam and power generation equipment and all its
constraints and degrees of freedoms are also taken into
account by the model.
The objective function the model optimises is the total
operating cost of the system, which is:
Total operating cost = total fuel cost + total electric cost +
miscellaneous costs
The optimisers job is to minimise this objective
function subject to operating constraints in the system.
The optimisation problem solved has a mixed integer non-
linear structure and the decision variables include both
continuous (i.e., boiler steam ows, fuel usage and letdown
ows) and discrete ones (i.e. turbine or motors, boilers and
n-fan condensers status).
Total fuel cost is determined from the fuel use of each
boiler, heater and combustion turbine multiplied by
their respective fuel prices or from a detailed fuels
network system modelling where each individual fuel
receives its cost.
Total electric cost is determined from the net electric
use of each motor, load, and generator multiplied by
their respective electric prices. The electric generation
(power selling) is just negative electric use. The
model can take into account the electricity price
corresponding to the actual hour of the day as well as
the penalties associated in selling more or less power
than the market arranged exportation amount, if any.
Miscellaneous costs are used to group other energy
system related costs, such as as demineralised water
coming into the system, chemicals cost for water
treatment and CO
2
emissions cost.
After the model and optimisation conguration is
reviewed with users, training at engineering and user level is
performed. Model ne tuning and optimisation results analysis
is performed on a daily basis. Minor model modications and
additions or adjustments of constraints are done. At the end
of this period, operators start using the tool every day.
The model is in use by operations for site wide costs
minimisation and as the energy watchdog. Economic
benets already obtained are reviewed and improvements
for the future are discussed. The following sections
describe important aspects of the implementation related
to the control system, sensors validation, installation
architecture and results historisation.
Control system review
A key stage of an energy optimisation online system
deployment is to perform a comprehensive review of the
steam, power, and fuel control systems of the site. This is
done in meetings between the sites control engineers and
Soteicas. The main goals of the control system review are:
Develop a good understanding of how the Visual MESA
optimisation handles and process constraints are
related through the site control system.
Identify any new control strategies or changes to
existing strategies that are needed to implement the
optimisation.
This will result in making sure that the optimisation
suggestions will be properly implemented using the sites
operating procedures, control strategies and control
structure. The optimisers main decision variables are:
Steam production rates at boilers, controlled by the
steam pressure header controller. In case a given
l
l
l
l
l
l
Figure 2. Boilers plant model area view.
Figure 1. INTERQUISA energy system. Top view from Visual MESA
model GUI.
Figure 3. Hot oil network area view.
www.hydrocarbonengineering.com Reprinted from May2008 HYDROCARBONENGINEERING
boiler operates disconnected from the main pressure
control loop, operators change its load manually, in
accordance with the optimiser recommendations.
Natural gas import to the fuel gas system, usually
manipulated by a fuel gas mix drum pressure controller.
Letdown, vents, and condensing, located in two plant
areas, controlled by the steam pressure headers
controllers and manually starting or stopping motors of
fin-fan steam condensers.
Steam and fuel gas sold and purchased to/from
neighbour sites or own plants, manually adjusted by
the operators.
Also during these meetings, operators will interact
with Soteica regarding the look of the GUI screens that
have the model representation. Soteica tries to make them
comfortable by doing graphical representations that mimic
closely their DCS screens.
Real time data and sensors
validation
A standard OPC based (OLE for process control) protocol
interface has been implemented in Visual MESA to perform
a smooth and easy communication with the appropriate
data sources, such as a distributed control system (DCS),
a Plant Information System or real time database. OPC
connectivity supports protocols for both data access (DA)
for instantaneous data acquisition and historical data
access (HDA) for historical data acquisition.
The model contains approximately 600 sensors, many
of them providing real time data and many others writing
l
l
l
back calculated data and key performance indicators (KPIs)
to the Plant Information System.
Sensors (with their associated properties) are linked to the
model simulation and optimisation blocks by simply dragging
and dropping the corresponding icons from the builders
palette. Each sensor object can be easily congured to
protect the model from measurement errors and bad values
using the extensive set of validation features provided.
Figure 4 shows an example of the available
conguration options in case of a sensor data validation
failure. As the model is designed to be executed
automatically, fed with online data, the raw values coming
from the Plant Information System should be carefully
validated each time they are acquired. If a sensor fails, the
software allows the user to make decisions about default
values to use, how to consider optimisers or constraints
related to the given sensor, and other important aspects
related to the optimisation.
Installation architecture
The software has two types of uses:
Standalone use (engineering station).
Client server use (engineering, shift supervisors,
operators and manager stations).
The purpose of the standalone use (engineering station)
is for individual users to be able to run case studies on
their own PCs, using the current site model or any other
model the user may have built to perform 'what if' studies.
The models can be populated with current, real time data,
or historical data (very easily acquired from the Plant
Information System via standard OPC historical data
access). Multiple parametric runs can be programmed and
launched from within MS Excel, writing back the desired
model values and reading optimisation results also from
there.
The purpose of the client server use is to share the
solutions of the current, online optimisation, between
multiple users throughout the organisation. The Visual
MESA server runs as a service on a given PC, connected
to the real time database via OPC, as mentioned before. It
automatically runs with no interruption every 15 minutes,
writing results back to the Plant Information System and
generating reports. Any PC connected to the plant network
can be congured to access the model and the reports.
Users can connect in many ways (html and Excel reports,
GUI). Figure 5 shows the scheme of the information and
control network at INTERQUISA site and the location of
Visual MESA server and PC clients.
Results historisation
Visual MESA writes back to the real time database
selected results and KPIs: energy system economics
and calculated efficiencies. Each time the system is
executed the predicted savings are calculated. This
value will hold only if all the suggested optimisation
movements were implemented simultaneously. Those
predicted savings constitute the main economic KPI.
It is expected that if the operators implement all the
proposed optimum solution on a continuous basis, the
projected savings will start decreasing. Eventually, if the
system detects in the future new saving opportunities,
they will increase for a while again, until the operators
take care of the optimum movements, and so on.
l
l
Figure 4. Configuration details of a sensor added to the model.
Figure 5. Installation architecture.
A persistent high projected savings trend would trigger
the question from supervision or engineering staff about
its persistence, helping to quickly identify any issue that
would impede capture of the predicted costs reduction.
Most commonly historised equipment efciencies are:
Boilers and heaters efficiency.
Gas turbines heat recovery steam generation systems
(HRSGs) efficiencies.
Gas turbines heat rate.
Headers imbalances (the software automatically calculates
the imbalances for each header where a special ad hoc
calculation block, called balloon is located).
The long term trends help to identify those pieces of
equipment that can lose efciency and therefore justify
cleaning, when possible. A calculated boiler efciency trend
is shown in Figure 6. Also, the headers imbalances are
often related to sensor failures. A sudden increase on an
imbalance would trigger the search for the cause. If a bad
signal sensor or out of range signal is identied, it would be
repaired and or reranged.
Conclusions
An online model in use at the control room of the
INTERQUISA site was successfully implemented. It helped
to identify signicant energy savings that were realised by
the operators.
The implementation aspects related to the control
system have been summarised. A key point in
accomplishing savings is to gain the operators acceptance
of the systems consoles. The current version of the
consoles at INTERQUISA was produced after incorporating
all the operators requests, from the properly tailored
interface to mimic the look of the actual DCS screens up to
the personalised training they received. In such a way, the
l
l
l
l
Visual MESA model is today a valuable optimisation tool
used at the control room.
References
MAMPRIN, J., RUIZ, D. and RUIZ, C., TOTAL RAFFINERIE DE
FEYZIN, Site Wide Energy Cost Reduction at TOTAL Feyzin
Refinery, European Refining Technology Conference (ERTC) 12th
Annual Meeting, Spain, November 2007.
RUIZ, C., RUIZ, D. and NELSON, D., Online energy management,
Hydrocarbon Engineering, pp. 60-68, September 2007.
GARCA CASAS, J. M., KIHN, M., RUIZ MASSA, D. and RUIZ,
C., The Use of an Online Model for Energy Site Wide Costs
Minimization, European Refining Technology Conference (ERTC)
Asset Maximisation, Rome, Italy, May 2007.
JONES, B. and NELSON, D., Finding Benefits by Modeling
and Optimizing Steam and Power Systems, Industrial Energy
Technology Conference (IETC), New Orleans, May 2007.
BENEDICTO CALPE, S., GARROTE PAZOS, B., RUIZ MASSA,
D., MAMPRIN, J., RUIZ and GARCA, C., 'Online Energy
Management', Petroleum Technology Quarterly, Q1, 131-138,
January 2007.
KIHN, M., MAMPRIN, J., RUIZ, D. and RUIZ, C., Industrial
Energy Management Using On-Line Models, European Refining
Technology Conference 11
th
Annual Meeting, Energy Workshop,
Paris, France, October 2006.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Figure 6. Calculated boiler efficiency trend.
Soteica Ideas
& Technology
USA: +1 (281) 829-3322 Europe/Middle East/Africa: +34 (93) 375 3503
Brasil: +55 (11) 5091 3900 Argentina: +54 (11) 4555 5703
Mexico: +52 (55) 9199 7349 www.soteica.com info@soteica.com
soteica.indd 1 21/8/07 08:52:55