The School of Chemical Engineering

Process Control & Instrumentation

with special thanks to Manta Controls
 Topic 1: Benefits of Process Control

What is Process Control?

Why is it Important?
Process Systems
Taking a shower disturbances
Driving a car
Baking a cake

manipulated measured
Process outputs
inputs

unmeasured outputs

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Control of Process Systems
disturbances
SISO
set points Controller MIMO

manipulated measured
Process outputs
inputs

Feedback control Estimator

Inferential control
Feedforward control unmeasured outputs

Controller
set points

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Why Control a Process?
If you werent to intervene, you would be:
Unhappy
Not as wealthy
Injured/killed
Wasteful
Impacting more on the environment

Transport phenomena are self-regulating

Heat transfer, diffusion
A process that is not self-regulating must be controlled
Riding a bike down a hill, exothermic reaction

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Why Control a Process?

Stable Unstable
Suppress the effects of disturbances
Damp oscillations
Ensure stability
Optimise performance; speed up natural process
Cooling via forced convection

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Disturbances
Noise
Seasonal fluctuations
Fouling and wear
Fluctuation in utilities
Failure or leakage of process elements
Human error
Start-up and shut-down
Process turndown

May not always be clear! Must define system carefully

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 disturbances
Process Systems
Heated stirred tank

manipulated measured
Process outputs
inputs

Inlet Fi, Ti Outlet F, T

Volume V
unmeasured outputs
T
Steam Inlet
h Fst, Tst

Condensate

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Defining the System
Process
Boundary is the tank reactor
Inlet Fi, Ti Outlet F, T

Measured outputs
Outflow temperature and rate, tank level Volume V

Unmeasured outputs
T
Steam Inlet
h Fst, Tst

Viscosity, steam efficiency, corrosion Q

Manipulated inputs Condensate

Steam flow rate, mixing torque

Disturbances
Inflow temperature and rate, steam pressure and temperature

What is the objective? What is the best control strategy?

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Steady-State to Dynamic Systems
Processes will not always operate at steady-state
Dynamics must be considered for Inlet F , T Outlet F, T
i i

Start-up/shut-down
Input disturbances Volume V

Set point changes T

Steam Inlet
h Fst, Tst
i.e. All the time! Q

These can be characterised Condensate

By measuring the system response to a known input

From 1st principles

accumulation = in out + generation

Material Energy Momentum
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Steady-State to Dynamic Systems
accumulation = in out + generation
Inlet Fi, Ti Outlet F, T

dV
Material: Fi F Volume V

dt T
Steam Inlet
h Fst, Tst

where V Ah
Q

Condensate

dH
Energy: C p FiTi C p FT Q
dt
where H C pVT ; Q UAst (Tst T )

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Terminology
Open-loop
No form of control; natural process
Closed-loop
Manual control (controlled by operator/human)
Automatic control
Process Variable PV
Measured input to controller
Set Value or Set Point SV, SP
Manipulated Variable MV, CV
Output of controller, normally after processing by final control
element

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Standard Feedback Control Loop
Main focus of this course d(t)

SV MV
r(t) e(t) c(t) Final Control m(t) y(t)
+ Controller Process
- Element

PV

ym(t)
Transmitter

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Control Requirements
Control objective Controller
Understanding of the process Implements control algorithm
Control strategy Final control element
Valve, pump
Sensing equipment Human-Machine Interface
Orifice plate, thermocouple Graphics, accessibility, control
functionality
Transducers
Data recording
Converts one type of signal to
another, e.g. I/P converter Analysis and troubleshooting
Transmission lines Alarming
4 20 mA; wireless; 3 15 psi If/when things go wrong
Networking
Supervisory control This costs money!

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Why Implement Process Control?
May be only 3 10% of capital cost for huge returns
Requires only instrumentation and people
Badly run plant will benefit more
Must verify with economic evaluation
Complex modelling may not be economically viable or wise

Contributes to Business Plan

Environment, health, safety and the community
Production
Costs
People

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Environment, Health, Safety and
Community
Assists with abiding by state and federal regulations
Temperature, chemical concentrations, flow rates of effluents
Reduces consumption of resources
Water, energy, land usage, equipment parts
Reduces risk of exceeding operational
limits/overstressing equipment
Explosions, spills, catastrophic contamination, bad reputation
Reduces hazard to operators
Centralise plant control, less stress
Incorporates alarming, interlocks and permissives
Interlocks: Trip the plant/process
Permissives: Safe values that must be reached before re-start

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Production
Improves repeatability
Consistent product specification, operate closer to process limits,
better utilisation
Reduces downtime
Better equipment life, less trips
Reduces variation between operators/shifts
Provides data on process for optimisation/innovation

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Production
Before control
solution

After control solution

Karageorgos, J., Genovese, P., Baas, D. (2006)

Current Trends in SAG and AG Mill Operability
and Control, Department of Mining Engineering:
Vancouver,Canada

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Cost
Decreases cost per unit product, e.g. minerals
processing:
$ Fixed Cost Variable Cost

Metal Unit Grade Throughput Recovery Availability Utilisatio n

People
Improves job satisfaction
Operators, managers
Minimises human error

Process control is now essential to a good business plan!

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Is Control Perfect? No!
Physical limits may be reached
Pump speed, pressure relief valve
May be delays or a slow response
Process dynamics
Disturbances may be unmeasured
Sudden rain shower affecting air temp
Incorrect model assumptions
Process characteristics may change over time
Wear, corrosion
Trade-off between performance and stability
Trade-off between different performance criteria
Quality of final product vs. time to cook
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Not Perfect, but Getting Better
Can derive mathematically the best realisable response if
the process is well-characterised
Inverse Model Control (IMC) or Lambda Tuning
Some control theory could not be implemented when it
was developed
Original controller tuning methods were not necessarily
optimal
Tuned controller to give an oscillatory response
Plants still operate in manual mode or with sub-optimal
control strategy and tuning parameters

Good process control engineers are needed!

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