Plant-wide Control

T&S Chapter 5, SS&L Chapter 20

Terry A. Ring
University of Utah

PROCESS DESIGN STAGES AND TOOLS

10 - Design and Control

DESIGN AND ANALYSIS II - (c) Daniel R. Lewin

Instrumentation and Control

Objectives

Control Valves

Safety Aspects
Fail Open, Fail Closed

Types of Control Valves

Linear
Non-linear
Restricted open range (gain scheduled controller)

Pressure Control Loop

Pressure Control Valve fail closed

Is fail closed best?

Pressure Transducer PT
Pieziolelectric, diaphragm displacement

Pressure Indicator Controller PIC

PID, maybe gain scheduling if valve is non-linear
Gain scheduling for pressure relief above a given pressure.

Alarm High
Alarm Low

Level Control Loop

pump

Level Control Valve fail open

Level Transducer LT
DP cell, guided radar, conductivity

Level Indicator Controller LIC

PID, maybe gain scheduling if valve is non-linear

Alarm High
Alarm Low
Pump may dead head
Interlock or gain schedule valve to never go to zero

Flow Control

Flow
Ratio

Centrifugal Pump
Flow Control Valve Fail ??
Flow Transducer
Orifice, venture, v-cone, many others

Flow Indicator Controller FIC

PID, maybe gain scheduling if valve is non-linear

Note, check valve to prevent back flow and by-pass loop to prevent
dead-heading pump
VFD can be costly
Missing Alarms on Pressure Indicator (PI)

Ratio Control
Ratio Control Valve FFV fail Closed
May have two control valves one for each stream

2 Flow Transducers
Orifice, venture, v-cone, many others

Flow Ratio Controller

PID with calculator for total flow(FT=FT1+FT2) to be held constant
Add
Pressure Relief

CV1 SP=Ratio*SPLC
CV2 SP=(1-Ratio)*SPLC

Temperature Control w Utility

Utility Control Valve TV Fail ??

Temperature Sensing Element (TE) and Temperature Transducer (TT) or Temperature
Indicator (TI)
Temperature Indicator Controller
PID, maybe gain scheduling if valve is non-linear

Vaporizer Control

Flow Control on Liquid and Level Control in HX

Pressure relief valve???

CSTR Contol System

Utility Temperature Control
TT and FT feed signals to Flow control
Cascade Control
Valve Fail???

Pressure Control
PID, gain scheduling = on/of
Valve Fail ???

Level Control
PID, gain scheduling if non-linear Valve
Valve Fail??

Feed Flow Rate Control

This needs ratio control!!
Valves Fail ??

PID Tuning Lamda Tuning

P only P=1
Step Test CV +/- 10%
Observe increase/decrease in PV
d and (63.2%) and Kp=%PV/%CV(output)

Kc=(Kp)-1*(Tr)/(+Td)
Tr=, =0.5 to 4 (typically 3) times Max(Td, Tr)
Cascade Control inner loop 5x to 10x faster than outer
loop

Lamda Tuning Results

Max(Td, Tr) = 4 s

These are all simple 1 input, 1

output controllers with alarms for
safety
Plant Wide Control is Diferent
Active Control System Objectives

Meet production rate and product quality targets

Keep system in Safe Operating Range for equipment, catalysts and materials of construction
Minimize Energy Utilized
Minimize Process Variability
Meet environmental regulations
Air quality
Water discharge quality

Profit Optimizer
Provide inputs for Active Control System

Separate Safety Control System

separate sensors, valves, controllers, power system

Identify Unsafe conditions

Take Action to Safely Bring the Plant/System Down to a Safe Point of Operation
or Shut Down

Procedure for Plant Wide Control

I. Top-down analysis to identify degrees of
freedom and primary controlled variables
(look for self-regulating variables)
II. Bottom-up analysis to determine
secondary controlled variables and
structure of control system e.g. pairings
(CVs with Sensors).

Degrees of Freedom (DoF) Analysis

DoF (= Control Valves)
DoF=Nvariables-Nexternally_defined-Nequations

Practice DoF on Smaller Problems

Heat Exchanger Network

Flow Rate Set

Floating Flow Rates for C1 & C2

Heat Exchanger
Network Control

Hot Stream

DoF = Nv-NDef-Neq=15-4-9=2 (# Control Valves)

Nv=15 (9Ts,3 flows, 3 Hx Qs)
NDef=4 (F1,To, o, 1)
Equations for Each Exchanger Neq=3x3=9
Q1=F1Cp1(To-T1)
Q1=F3Cp3(4- 3)
Q1= U1A1TLM

With By-pass, DoF = Nv-NDef-Neq=17-4-10=3

3 =(1-) 0+ 3

Neq=10, Nv=17(& ,3)

Streams 2 and 3 Cold

Distillation Control
with Total
Condenser
Control Valves ????
Degrees of Freedom Analysis DoF= Nv-NDef-Neq
Variables, Nv= 4 NT+13, NDef=2 (Feed Flow and
Composition)

Additional Control
Valve on Feed is
Possible which is
used for Production
Rate Control

Equations = 4 NT+6,
Valves)

DoF=5 (# Control

Distillation Control
What measurements?
What should be the pairings
of measurements to control
valves?
PD controlled with CV QC
LR controlled by CV B
LD controlled by
CV L if so what does CV D
control??
CV D if so what does CV L
control??

Distillation Control
Material Balance Control
4 Control Schemes
Inferred Composition Analysis = Temp. of Stage
Top CA or Bottom CA

With
Composition
Analysis
LV control
DV control
L/F V control
D/F V control

Key Concerns for Plant-wide Control

System
Establish Control Objectives
Safe Operation Process Within its Constraints
Meets Environmental Constraints
Control Production Rate
Feed Flow Controls
Product (on-demand) Flow Controls

Control Product Quality

Determine Degrees of Freedom for Control System

Position Control Valves

Establish Energy Management System

Recycle Loop Flows Fixed watch out for snowball efects
Vapor and Liquid Inventories Fixed
Improve Dynamic Controllability

Acrylic Process
AB

Objectives
Production Rate of B high
& constant
Conversion in reactor
highest possible
Constant Composition for
B

Where to set the production rate?

Should it be at the inlet or outlet?
Very important!
Determines structure of remaining inventory (level)
control system
Set production rate at (dynamic) bottleneck
Link between Top-down and Bottom-up parts of Plantwide Control System

On-demand Product or
Feed Flow Control
System
20.13
FC on Product B
Feed of A controlled as needed by
reactor
20.14
FC on Feed A Flow
Level Controls Product B Flow Rate
Reactor Temp is controlled with
Cascade Controller
To meet Composition Requirements

Note:
Trim steam heater for Feed A for accurate
temperature control at reactor

Note: Flash Vessel will have a spray

head for cold B to condense all
possible Vapors
Vapor Typically is fed above Liquid
level
Demister on outlet of Vessel

Plantwide Control Design

Determine all manipulated variable. Number of manipulated variables MAY be equal to the number of control valves.

Determine how production rate is set: (a) upstream process; (b) downstream process; (c) free to vary. Determine the best way to control the
production rate: (a) valve selection; (b) setpoint on temperature, recycle, etc. can sometimes be used to control production rate.

Decide how to control product quality.

The closed loop system for product quality control should have adequately small time constant, time delays, and sufficiently large gains.
Consider interaction between diferent loops and decide if multivariable control is needed.
Make sure that flows are not too small to achieve the objective (i.e. it is difficult to control condenser level using small flow rate of distillate in the column with high internal
flows).

Determine and stabilize unstable units.

Design inventory control loops.

Develop component balance control loops (control of makeup streams of reactants, makeup gaseous streams to maintain pressure, liquid makeup to
control level, etc.).

Be careful with recycle loops: They introduce feedback (positive or negative), which makes it difficult to analyze the consequences of the particular
control design on the overall performance. For instance, it was found that unless one flow somewhere in the recycle loop is fixed, the recycle flow
might grow to very high rate when disturbance occurs or when throughput is increased (snowball efect).

Heat integration saves cost but can make plantwide control more difficult because integrating loops also spread disturbances.

Use cascade control to reduce the efect of disturbances.

Using steady state simulations to study controllability of the designed system in face of disturbances. For example, perturb the feed flow rate or
composition and study how flows and other process variables change to compensate for the disturbances. If small disturbance requires large changes
in flow rate or other manipulated variables to compensate for its efect, the control system must be redesigned.

Using steady state simulations, determine the ranges of acceptable disturbances, which can be taken care of while maintaining the production goals.

Use dynamic simulation to determine dynamic response of the designed system. Redesign as needed. For instance, redesign to eliminate inverse
response, if at all possible.

Use dynamic simulation to find the range of disturbances, which can be compensated for using the designed control system.

Use dynamic model to determine the range of stability of the closed-loop system when diferent model parameters change.

Use the remaining degrees of freedom (manipulated variables) for steady state optimization (maximize the profit, etc.) and/or to improve
controllability of the plant (disturbance rejection, flexibility in changing operation point or product mix, etc).

Ensure safe and environmentally sound operation.

Startup shutdown, safety and emergency handling control.

Vinyl Chloride Process

Reactor 1 FeCl3 solid
Catalyst
Conversion is >90%
C2H4 + Cl2 C2H2Cl2

Fired Heater for Pyrolysis

Reaction
Conversion is 60%
C2H2Cl2 C2H3Cl + HCl
Product

Vinyl Chloride Process

Vinyl Chloride Process w Control

System

Approach to Optimizer
DoF Analysis for Optimizer
Levels are not important in Optimization

Constraint Analysis
Optimization Itself

Example of self-optimizing structure

Recycle process: J = V (min. boil-up => min.
energy)
5

4
1
2
GivenfeedrateF0and
columnpressure:

Nm=5
N0y=2Levels
DoF=Nss=52=3

Constraints:
Maximizereactorvolume(residence

timeandthusconversion)
Productspec:xB>0.98

Recycle process:
Selection of controlled variables
Step 3.1 J=V (minimize energy with
given feed)
Step 3.1 DOFs for optimization: Nss = 3
Step 3.3 Most important disturbance:
Feedrate F0
Step 3.4 Optimization: Constraints on
max. Mr and xB always active
Step 3.5 1 DOF left, candidate controlled
variables: F, D, L, xD, ...

Recycleprocess:Losswithconstantsetpoint,cs
Largelosswithc=F

Negligiblelosswithc=L/F

Proposed control structure

for case with J = V (minimize energy)

Activeconstraint
Mr=Mrmax
Activeconstraint
xB=xBmin=98%
2 Active Constraints for Optimization
Reactor Full
Min Composition Required

Recycle process:
Selection of controlled variables
Step 3.1 J=V (minimize energy with
given feed)
Step 3.1 DOFs for optimization: Nss = 3
Step 3.3 Most important disturbance:
Feedrate F0
Step 3.4 Optimization: Constraints on
max. Mr and xB always active
Step 3.5 1 DOF left, candidate controlled
variables: F, D, L, xD, ...

Given feedrate, the production rate set at inlet of the

column

Reconfiguration is required when the bottleneck (max.

vapor rate in column) is reached (rate set at the outlet
of the column)

MAX

HW 5 Heat Integration

Optimization of minimum temperature approach in a heat exchanger:

Set up a T for E1 =(TS1-TS4)

VP = (1-t)(S-C)-i(Cequipment)
S=0,
C= Utilities for E2 and E3
Qi = mi Cpi Ti
Ci = Qi * Price of Utilityi

Cequipment
Cost of HX
E1+E2+E3

Cost f(HX Area)

Area = Q/(U TLM)

Capital and Operating Cost Optimization

Tthres

Problem 2 - Pinch Analysis

To exchange heat between four
streams with Tmin= 20C, the
HEN in the figure below is
proposed. Determine if the
network has the minimum utility
requirements. If not, design a
network with the minimum utility
requirements.
As an alternative design a
network with the minimum
number of heat exchangers.