Applied Manufacturing Technologies

AMT

APC9 069 Experiences in building

and maintaining MPC

Advances in Process Control 9, York,

September 2011

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

What do AMT do?

Maximize client profitability through expert consulting

and successful advanced control and real-time
optimisation technology implementation

Were a service company providing technology expertise

throughout the chemical and refining industries
Maintain a technology-independent position
Maintain a high standard of practice and skill
Ensure our clients long term success by addressing
both application peak performance and long term
average application performance

AMT

Process Performance Specialists

AMT a Global Services Company

UK
Seoul

Tokyo

Barcelona
Houston

Expertise is leveraged globally as needed for specific engagements

Currently the most experienced & largest independent APC service group
in the world approximately 500 man-years of experience, nearly 30 engineers

AMT

Process Performance Specialists

Areas of Expertise and Offerings

Well Established APC

Deployment Capability

PID tuning & configuration

APC Project implementation

Optimization Capability

Full scope/Reduced scope

optimization implementations

Automated Plant Testing

Significant experience in rapid

controller development

Strategy & feasibility studies

Performance reviews (post
audits)
Assistance in basic design of
regulatory control configuration
Troubleshooting process
issues
Regulatory configuration and
tuning course, Advanced APC
user courses
Operator Training
Process and/or Technology led
training

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

Project Implementation Strategy

Process first, technology second

Primary focus is on process understanding

Quality Advanced Process Control solutions start at the

regulatory control layer

Design application with appropriate complexity to

achieve sustainable benefits at true plant/process
constraints

Software vendor independent

AMT works with all technologies provided by APC and

Optimization software vendors

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

What Tools are Needed for Building and

Maintaining Model Predictive Controllers?
Must

have appropriate knowledge

Process and operation experience

Process control at regulatory and advanced layers
Computer expertise in software and hardware
integration

Technical

skills must be backed up by people

skills

Working with operators, technicians, process

engineers, planners and managers

Success

and failure are highly visible

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

War Stories

Getting it wrong

Management telling operations that APC will reduce manning

levels (it doesnt)
Not including time to resolve the regulatory control problems
(getting the underlying structure right is key to success with
multivariable control)
Being a control engineer rather than a process engineer (it is no
good being a whiz at PID tuning or multivariable controller tuning
if you dont design right in the first place)
Not investing time in model development and conditioning
(getting a good prediction is only part of the story)
Poor set up of variable priorities (a multivariable controller
cannot control everything all of the time) and optimization
objectives
Not investing in on-going maintenance (all multivariable
controllers require regular attention)

We can illustrate some of these stories with examples

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

Example 1: Regulatory control is a multivariable

problem also
Objective

is to provide rapid and smooth

rejection of disturbances this is not the role of
APC
Flows should be easy

If theyre not working, is it the valve & related

hardware?

with material balance levels & pressures

Next do the energy balance temperatures
Tuning software or rules of thumb?
Start

With experience, tuning software is only needed in

difficult circumstances

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

Process Issues & PID tuning/configuration

Heat

integration and process layout creates

complex interactions
Example is 3 loops interacting with each other:

Column C38101 inlet temp controller TC210

Column C38101 bottom level controller LC101
Column C205 bottom level controller LC215

By

hand it is easy to tune single loops and even

two loops that interact, but three can become
tedious

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

AMT

Process Performance Specialists

Process Issues & PID tools

We need to bring this understanding of the process

engineering issue to our software tools
After testing all loops in manual the model obtained is
the following (unit step responses)
RAW
Identification
Can simulate the interactions and tune manually (for Case
example using Cutlers [UPID] and training simulator
software)
Using a commercial package called Aptitune we can
derive tuning for all three loops simultaneously hard to
do by hand!
No s

No s

ense

No s

FINAL Model

!
ense

ense

Process Performance Specialists

BEFORE

AMT

AFTER

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

Benefits of tuning
By

now, youre a hero with the operators loops

that they have had trouble with for years become
stable in all situations reduced workload

Operators become generous

Process

is in situation where it can move toward

constraints

In one example a single temperature loop was tuned

and made 0.25 million $/year

Having

won the hearts of the operators and the

unit managers you will have a good advanced
control project

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

Example 2: Plant Testing and Modelling

Objective

to move the process independent

variables to get responses in the dependent
variables
Can be done by hand, or in recent years with
some automated help
Beware the eager operator
Beware the lazy operator
Beware the helpful operator

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

Model identification its not just about prediction

A

stabiliser column has two products

Bottom C5+, control the Reid Vapour Pressure
Top C4-, control the %C5 lost to the overhead

Two

handles available to do this

Reflux (top cooling) and reboil (bottom heating)

This

is a naturally ill-conditioned problem

Can find models that predict fairly easily but in
this instance successful control requires more
than a good prediction

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

Two models give equivalent prediction of RVP

Red = measured

Blue = model 1 prediction

Pink = model 2 prediction

AMT

Process Performance Specialists

Control calculation to reduce RVP and %C5

Typical

scenario is running both qualities at their

upper limits
Say the controller needs to make a 0.01 and 0.5
reduction in both qualities to achieve targets
Calculate steady-state change in handles by
multiplying required change in CVs by inverse of
model gains
1

a b 0.01
MVss G CV

c d 0.5
1

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

Gains for model 1 and model 2

The

values a, b, c, d in the equation are the

steady-state gains between the handles (reflux,
reboil) and the qualities
Model 1
Reflux (m3/h)
Reboil (C)

Model
Reflux (m3/h)
Reboil (C)

RVP (bar)

C5 (mol%)

0.000741216
-0.007069334

-0.058088677
0.871968881

RVP (bar)

C5 (mol%)

0.000588745
-0.00709939

-0.084574698
0.772619199

AMT

Process Performance Specialists

Resulting control moves for model 1 & 2

For

model 1

For

model 2

Clearly

Reflux (m3/h)
Reboil (C)

dMV
-52.00
-4.04

Reflux (m3/h)
Reboil (C)

dMV
77.47
7.83

model 1 would have the controller

moving in the wrong direction, it should increase
reflux and increase reboil to improve the
qualities

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

How come model 2 gives better results?

Both models gave adequate predictions

Success in multivariable control requires operation
understanding to be mapped in to the mathematics

The current commercial packages are still just maths

Special testing tricks help with this kind of problem

Normally we make independent moves on each handle

But for ill-conditioned problems we find making some of the
moves in a correlated way actually helps the identification
software find the correct gain ratios

So long as the software is a true MIMO identification, older MISO

techniques dont work so well

Often we have to fix models by hand, sacrificing

prediction quality to obtain satisfactory control behaviour

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

Example 3: But it used to work?

Some MPC technology is robust to numerical problems,

others not
With the following gains a controller had worked for
many years on a vacuum unit furnace
but when the control software vendor was changed
and the model migrated the application was not
accepted by the operators

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

Robustification?
To

handle numerical issues with some control

technologies requires human intervention

Relatively

small adjustment in gains to get stable

control behaviour

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

Example 4: Process Understanding is the Key

Large gasoline feedstock producing unit

Large scope application with 37 MVs & 171 CVs

Has been an application in place for many years, full redesign and revamp with a change in multivariable control
technology

Unifiners (H2S removal), Platformer (reactor), Isom (reactor)

Integrated 14 separate small applications in to one overall

structure to enable plant wide optimization

Some interesting events when controllers taken off-line

Operators had become dependent upon the applications and

found the unit hard to operate without the advanced controls
nearly had a shut-down when we turned off the old APC!
Operator training simulators become essential to maintain skills

AMT

Process Performance Specialists

Heart Cut Column

valuable
benzene
product from
the effluent
from the
Platformer
reactor
Process is very
non-linear

Light Plat

Pull

Platformate

Benzene
Heart Cut

Steam

Heavy Plat

Combined
Platformate

AMT

Process Performance Specialists

Benzene in Heart Cut

Pentane
+ lights
Toluene concentration

Benzene concentration

Concentration
increasing with
increased heart
cut flow

Benzene
Heart-cut flow

Toluene

AMT

Process Performance Specialists

Toluene concentration

Benzene concentration

Concentration reducing
with too much heart cut
flow pulling Toluene up
from base

Pentane
+ lights

Benzene

Toluene
Heart-cut flow

MPC objective is to sit on the optimum point maximising side draw until breakthrough
of toluene then moving until there is no toluene. This leads to some cycling of the
product flow, but this is not a problem because the run-down goes to storage.

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

Control design accommodates non-linear behaviour

The multivariable controller is designed so that

increasing reboil will potentially always increase the wt%
benzene in heart cut, this is to ensure enough duty to
drive benzene up the column
Depending on the amount of toluene breakthrough in the
heart cut (side-draw) other MVs (Side-draw flow & Top
Temp.) may move differently to maximise the benzene
recovery

Toluene breakthrough case: If wt% bz in heart cut is low, then

reduce Top Temp. and side-draw to compensate until side-draw
moves into toluene free mode
Toluene free case: If wt% of bz in heart cut is low, then increase
both side-draw and top temp. to compensate, until toluene starts
to break through

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

Benefit of Applying Process Understanding

After

nearly 15 years of different attempts there

is now an application which works
During commissioning we gradually increased
the benzene heart cut flow upper limit

Operators nervous at the amount of product we were

pulling
Eventually needed to re-range the flow meter
because of large increase in the average flow
Planning department were able to make significant
sales increase

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

New Application Working what about keeping it

working?
Monitoring
Reporting
Operations

need feedback and support

Tools

Keep talking
Track performance metrics
Strategy analysis

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

Who is APC Maintenance Engineers Key Customer?

Be available to operators to advise and respond to

problems
Meet with operators (at least weekly) to check they are
happy and have no problems with the MPC or related
applications, arranging and giving training as necessary

Spending a lot of time in the control room is a significant factor in

building operator confidence, getting their feedback always leads
to improvements in design, strategy and acceptance
Finding one or two operators who are very interested in the
application is a blessing, they can help with training and with
keeping documentation and self learning materials about the
MPC up to date

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

APC Maintenance Engineers Task List

Understand the process objectives

Understand the process in the context of the refinery
plan
Ensure that the MPC design matches those needs and if
possible at low cost make modifications as appropriate
Review application performance against the above
objectives on a regular basis (typically every month)
Review application performance in terms of KPIs and
stability of operation (typically every week)
Update controller tuning and models on an as needed
basis to ensure acceptable performance

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

Example 5: Adapting a strategy may show new

problems in an old controller new tricks can help
old dogs
Crude

Unit application commissioned and

running for several years
CDU quality objectives changed, a part time
quality constraint becomes a full time constraint
Activated different combination of MVs and CVs
Controller makes excessive movement on top
temperature
Model gains seem reasonable, no significant
RGA issues, what could be wrong?

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

Modelling technology has improved

Re-check identification of the problem relationship from

original test data

New approach to modelling shows bigger dynamic overshoot in

the modelled response than had been identified previously
New modelling software used true MIMO relationships, adding
MV PVs in to the identification gave improved results

Update model curve with better dynamics

New dynamic model shows MPC it needs to move slowly to

prevent the oscillation from building as the tower top temperature
swings the qualities

Process Performance Specialists

AMT

Conclusions
Implementing

process control solutions is a

tough business

Front line customer facing, often 24 hours per day

Failure is visible very quickly
Success can be hard won APC may move the plant
more than the operators are used to and it may take
time to bed in
Success

requires experience and teamwork

Once the application is accepted it must not be
left to die

Local engineering and remote support are essential