Chemical and Bio-Process Control

James B. Riggs
M. Nazmul Karim

Chapter 1
Introduction

A Career in Process Control

Requires that engineers use all of their chemical
engineering training (i.e., provides an excellent
technical profession that can last an entire career)
Can become a technical Top Gun
Allows engineers to work on projects that can
result in significant savings for their companies
(i.e., provides good visibility within a company)

A Career in Process Control

Provides professional mobility. There is a
shortage of experienced process control
engineers.
Is a well paid technical profession for
chemical engineers.

Chemical Process Industries (CPI)

Hydrocarbon fuels
Chemical products
Pulp and paper products
Agrochemicals
Man-made fibers

Bio-Process Industries
Use micro-organisms to produce useful
products
Pharmaceutical industry
Ethanol from grain industry

Importance of Process Control for

the CPI
PC directly affects the safety and reliability of
a process.
PC determines the quality of the products
produced by a process.
PC can affect how efficient a process is
operated.
Bottom Line: PC has a major impact on the
profitability of a company in the CPI.

Safety and Reliability

The control system must provide safe operation
Alarms, safety constraint control, start-up and
shutdown.

A control system must be able to absorb a

variety of disturbances and keep the process in a
good operating region:
Thunderstorms, feed composition upsets, temporary
loss of utilities (e.g., steam supply), day to night
variation in the ambient conditions

Benefits of Improved Control

Impurity
Concentration

Old Controller
Limit

Time

Benefits of Improved Control

Limit

Time

New Controller
Impurity
Concentration

Impurity
Concentration

Old Controller

Limit

Time

Better Control Means Products

with Reduced Variability
For many cases, reduced variability
products are in high demand and have high
value added (e.g., feedstocks for polymers).
Product certification procedures (e.g., ISO
9000) are used to guarantee product quality
and place a large emphasis on process
control.

Benefits of Improved Control

New Controller
Impurity
Concentration

Limit

Time

Improved Performance
Impurity
Concentration

Impurity
Concentration

Old Controller

Limit

Time

Limit

Time

Maximizing the Profit of a Plant

Many times involves controlling against
constraints.
The closer that you are able to operate to
these constraints, the more profit you can
make. For example, maximizing the
product production rate usually involving
controlling the process against one or more
process constraints.

Constraint Control Example

Consider a reactor temperature control example for
which at excessively high temperatures the reactor
will experience a temperature runaway and
explode.
But the higher the temperature the greater the
product yield.
Therefore, better reactor temperature control
allows safe operation at a higher reactor
temperature and thus more profit.

Importance of Process Control for the

Bio-Process Industries
Improved product quality.
Faster and less expensive process validation.
Increased production rates.

Driving a Car: An Everyday

Example of Process Control
Control Objective (Setpoint): Maintain car in proper
lane.
Controlled variable- Location on the road
Manipulated variable- Orientation of the front wheels
Actuator- Drivers arms/steering wheel
Sensor- Drivers eyes
Controller- Driver
Disturbance- Curve in road

Logic Flow Diagram for a

Feedback Control Loop

Temperature Control for a Heat

Exchanger: ChE Control Example

Heat Exchanger Control

Controlled variable- Outlet temperature of
product stream
Manipulated variable- Steam flow
Actuator- Control valve on steam line
Sensor- Thermocouple on product stream
Disturbance- Changes in the inlet feed
temperature

DO Control in a Bio-Reactor

DO Control
Controlled variable- the measured dissolved
O2 concentration
Manipulated variable- air flow rate to the
bio-reactor
Actuator- variable speed air compressor
Sensor- ion-specific electrode in contact
with the broth in the bio-reactor
Disturbance- Changes in the metabolism of
the microorganisms in the bio-reactor

Logic Flow Diagram for a

Feedback Control Loop

Comparison of Driving a Car and

Control of a Heat Exchanger
Actuator: Drivers arm and steering wheel
vs. Control valve
Controller: the driver vs. an electronic
controller
Sensor: the drivers eyes vs. thermocouple
Controlled variable: cars position on the
road vs. temperature of outlet stream

The key feature of all feedback control

loops is that the measured value of the
controlled variable is compared with
the setpoint and this difference is used
to determine the control action taken.

In-Class Exercise
Consider a person skiing down a mountain.
Identify the controller, the actuator, the
process, the sensor and the controlled
variable. Also, indicate the setpoint and
potential disturbances. Remember that the
process is affected by the actuator to change
the value of the controlled variable.

Types of Feedback Controllers

On-Off Control- e.g., room thermostat
Manual Control- Used by operators and based on
more or less open loop responses
PID control- Most commonly used controller.
Control action based on error from setpoint (Chaps
6-8).
Advanced PID- Enhancements of PID: ratio,
cascade, feedforward (Chaps 9-11).
Model-based Control- Uses model of the process
directly for control (Chap 13).

Duties of a Control Engineer

Tuning controllers for performance and
reliability (Chap 7)
Selecting the proper PID mode and/or
advanced PID options (Chap 6, 10-12)
Control loop troubleshooting (Chap 2 & 8)
Multi-unit controller design (Chap 14)
Documentation of process control changes

Characteristics of Effective
Process Control Engineers
Use their knowledge of the process to guide
their process control applications. They are
process control engineers.
Have a fundamentally sound picture of
process dynamics and feedback control.
Work effectively with the operators.

Operator Acceptance
A good relationship with the operators is a
NECESSARY condition for the success of a control
engineer.
Build a relationship with the operators based on
mutual respect.
Operators are a valuable source of plant experience.
A successful control project should make the
operators job easier, not harder.

Process Control and

Optimization
Control and optimization are terms that are
many times erroneously interchanged.
Control has to do with adjusting flow rates to
maintain the controlled variables of the
process at specified setpoints.
Optimization chooses the values for key
setpoints such that the process operates at the
best economic conditions.

Optimization and Control of a CSTR

Optimization Example
ABC
Mole balance on A :
Q C A0 Q C A k1 exp[ E1 / RT ] C A Vr
Solving for C A
C A0
CA
k1 exp[ E1 / RT ]Vr
1
Q
Likewise, C B and CC are calculated from mole
balances.

Economic Objective Function

Q C A VA Q C B VB Q CC VC Q C A0 VAF

VB > VC, VA, or VAF

At low T, little formation of B
At high T, too much of B reacts to form C
Therefore, the exits an optimum reactor temperature, T*

Optimization Algorithm
1. Select initial guess for reactor
temperature
2. Evaluate CA, CB, and CC
3. Evaluate
4. Choose new reactor temperature and
return to 2 until T* identified.

Graphical Solution of Optimum

Reactor Temperature, T*
Economic Objective
Function,

2
1.5
1
T*

0.5
0
-0.5

250

275

300

325

Reactor Temperature (K)

350

Process Optimization
Typical optimization objective function, :
=
Product values-Feed costs-Utility costs
The steady-state solution of process models is usually
used to determine process operating conditions which
yields flow rates of products, feed, and utilities.
Unit costs of feed and sale price of products are
combined with flows to yield
Optimization variables are adjusted until is
maximized (optimization solution).

Generalized Optimization
Procedure
Numerical
Optimization
Algorithm

Initial Estimate
of Optimization
Variables

Economic
Function
Value

Optimization
Variables

Process
Model

Optimum
Operating
Conditions

Model
Results

Economic
Function
Evaluation

Economic
Parameters

Optimization and Control of a CSTR

In-Class Exercise
Identify an example for which you use
optimization in your everyday life. List the
degrees of freedom (the things that you are
free to choose) and clearly define the
process and how you determine the
objective function.

Overview of Course Material

Control loop hardware (Chap 2)
Dynamic modeling (Chap 3)
Transfer functions and idealized dynamic
behavior (Chap 4-6)
PID controls (Chap 7-10)
Advanced PID controls (Chap 12-14)
Control of MIMO processes (Chap 15-18)

Fundamental Understanding and

Industrially Relevant Skills
Fundamental Understanding Laplace tranforms and transfer functions (Ch 4-5)
Idealized dynamic behavior (Ch 6)
Frequency response analysis (Ch 11)

Industrially Relevant Skills

Control hardware and troubleshooting (Ch 2&10)

Controller Implementation and tuning (Ch 7-9)
Advanced PID techniques (Ch 12-14)
MIMO control (Ch 15-18)

Process Control Terminology

Important to be able to communicate with
operators, peers, and boss.
New terminology appears in bold in the text
New terminology is summarized at the end
of each chapter.
Review the terminology regularly in order
to keep up with it.

Overall Course Objectives

Develop the skills necessary to function as
an industrial process control engineer.
Skills

Tuning loops
Control loop design
Control loop troubleshooting
Command of the terminology

Fundamental understanding
Process dynamics
Feedback control

Overview
All feedback control loops have a controller, an
actuator, a process, and a sensor where the
controller chooses control action based upon the
error from setpoint.
Control has to do with adjusting flow rates to
maintain controlled variables at their setpoints
while for optimization the setpoints for certain
controllers are adjusted to optimize the economic
performance of the plant.