Process Dynamics Model: Ogvonatite aud Ra Oxford Universty Press 1I44 part I INTRODUCTION oy Oe SN In embarking upon a study of any subject forthe fst tine, the newcomer gute Tiaty to nd the unique anguge, Hom nd pec “took of the trade sted ih he act ates 9 Be very ach he he erin of Shen testy. Ths is certainly tue 0 is, Modeling, Cee pechape more so than of any other subject mater within the broader Sicapline Chemin Eaginering It stereo fequenty advantages tegnacptenaesndy of sucha bjt wie pnoranisuey eda gee Heelan The panoramic survey provides peapctice indicating broadly the scope, exert and content element ofthe tren an tial introduction (SSE Sutin elements in tum provides mollewtion forthe subsequent ‘Saad stady. Fat consisting of Chapter and, provides jst such an Srrenatio tou of the Process Dyramics, Modeling, and Control train before the dtaled exploration begins in the remaining parts ofthe book. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTORY CONCEPTS OF PROCESS CONTROL ‘A formal introduction to the role of process control in the chemical process indusiry is important for providing motivation and laying the foundation for the more detailed study of Process Dynamics, Modeling, and Control contained in the upcoming chapters. Thus this chapter is an introductory overview of [process control and how itis practiced in the chemical process industry. 1.1 THE CHEMICAL PROCESS In the chemical process industry, the primary objective is to combine chemical processing units, such as chemical reactors, distillation columns, extractors, coaporators, heat exchangers, etc., integrated in a rational fashion into chemical process in order to transform raw materials and input energy into finished products. This concept is illustrated in Figure 1.1 and leads to the definition: Any single processing unit, or combinations of processing units, used for the ‘conversion of raw materials (through any combination of chemical, physical, mechanical, or thermal changes) into finished products, is ‘chemical process, A concrete example of these somewhat abstract ideas is the crude fractionation section of a typical oil refinery illustrated in Figure 12. Here, the raw material (in this case, crude cil) is pumped from the “tank farms,” through the gas-fired preheater furnace, into the fractionator, where Separation into such useful products as naptias, ight gas oil, heavy gas oll, and high boiling residue takes place,a Pind Proce Figure 11. ‘Thechemical prowess Let us now compare this actual process with the abstract representation in Figure L1: + The processing units are the storage tanks, the furnace, and the fractionator, along with their respective auxiliary equipment. ‘+ The raw material is basically the crude oil; the air and fuel gas fed into the furnace provide the energy input realized via firing in the furnace. In addition there are often other sources of energy input to the fractionator. ‘+ The condensation of lighter material at the top of the fractionator, effected by the cooling unit, constitutes energy output. se The (finished) products are the naptha and residue streams from the top and bottom, respectively, and the gas ol streams from the mid-sections. ‘The basic principles guiding the operation of the processing units of a chernical process are based on the following, broad objectives: 1. Ibis desirable to operate the processing units safely. ‘This means that no unit should be operated at, or near, conditions considered to be potentially dangerous either to the health of the ‘operators or to the life of the equipment. The safety of the immediate, 1a well as the remote, environment also comes into consideration here. Process operating conditions that may lead to the violation of ‘environmental regulations must be avoided. 2. Specified production rates must be maintained: “The amount of product output required of a plant st any point in tine is usually dictated by market requirements. Thus, production rate specifications must be met and maintained, as much as possible. 3. Product quality specifications must be maintained. Products not meeting the required quality specifications must either be Giscarded as waste, or, where possible, reprocessed at extra cost. The heed for economic utilization of resources therefore provides the ‘motivation for striving to eatiefy product quality specifications. For the process shown in Figure 12, some operating constraints mandated by safety would be that the furnace tubes should not exceed their metallurgical temperature limit and the fractionation unit should not exceed its pressure rating. CHAP INTRODUCTORY CONCEPTS OF PROCESS CONTROL 7 esting unit Rete ecnvor O wf Tear ees FESD PUMPS (CRUDE om. FEED AicBunlGoe High ling Rede ‘STORAGE TANKS PIPESTILL FURNACE pRACTIONATOR Figure 12. Theupstresm end ofan ol refinery. ‘The issues of maintaining production rales and product quality are linked for his proesn The products avalible from cade clare determined by thet boiling points, as shown in Figure 1.3. Thus a lighter crude oll feed could preduce more naptha and light gas ol, while a heavier rude ofl woul produce nore heavy gas ol and high boiling residue. Hence the production rate Possible for each ofthe products depends on the particular crude ol being Fractionated and the quality specifications (arvaly & maximum boiling point for each fraction above the bottom). Thus by shifting the maximum bcling point upwards fora product such a naptha or gas ol, one ould produce more of fe but t would have a lower quality (ve, more high-oiling materials) "Now, chemical processes ae, by natire, dynamic, by which we mean that their variables are always changing with time. Iti clear, therefore, that fo achive the above noted objectives, thete i the need to mora, and be able to induce change in, those Key process variables that ar related to safety, production rte, and product quality ‘This dual task of: 1. Monitoring certain process condition indicator variables, and, 2. Inducing changes in the appropriate process variables in order to Improve process conditions {is the job of the contra! system. To achieve good designs for these control systems one must embark on the study of a new field, defined as follows: Process Dynamics and Control is that aspect of chemical engineering concerned with the analysis, design, and implementation of contral Systems that facllate the achizoement of specified adjectives of process safely, production rates, and product qualityReside Heavy Gas 01 ight Gos OF Napthe © Cumniatve Percent Boiwor 1? Figure 13. Crude oilboiling point curve illustrating the product distribution of lght ‘crude and s hesvy erade cl 1.2 AN INDUSTRIAL PERSPECTIVE OF A TYPICAL PROCESS CONTROL PROBLEM ‘The next phase of our presentation of introductory concepts involves the definition of certain terme that are routinely used in connection with various ‘components of a chemical process, and an introduction tothe concept ofa process Conliol system. This will be done in Sections 1.3 and 14, To motivate the iscussion, however, let us first examine, in this section, a typical industrial process control problem, and present what may wel-be a typical attempt to Zalve such problems, by following a simulated, but plausible, discussion between a plant engineer and a control engineer. wAs industrial systems go, this particular example is deliberstely chosen to ‘be simple, yet possessing enough important problematic features to capture the ceseence of control applications in the process industry. This allows us to focus on. the essentials and avoid getting bogged down with complex details that may only be distracting at this point. ‘Close attention should be paid to the jargon employed in communicating fdess back and forth during the dislogue. These terms will be defined and explained in the next portion of this chapter, and their importance will become ‘obvious in subsequent chapters, 1.21 The Problem ‘The process unit under consideration is the furnace in Figure 1.2 used to preheat the Crude oil feed material to the fractionator. A more detailed schematic diagram is shown in Figure 14. Such units are typically found in refineries and petrochemical plants. “The crude cil flowrate F and temperature Tat the inlet ofthe furriace tend to fluctuate substantially. The flowrate and temperature of the crude oil at the outlet ofthe furnace are, respectively, F, and T. It is desired to deliver the crude oll feed to the fractionator at a constant temperature T*, regardless of the conditions at the furnace inlet. For plant safety reasons, and because of metallurgical limits, it is mandatory that the furnace tube temperature not exceed the value Ty ‘CHAP 1 INTRODUCTORY CONCEPTS OF PROCESS CONTROL 9 vat frm: Ais Fowate = Posi Flowrsia y= Fae Supply Premare ‘igs Haat Contant of Fast Figure 14, Crude oil preheater furnace, The heat content of he heting fuel, 8 well asthe fe supply pressure are slo know to vary besnse of distuzbances in the fel gs emg rom & Sierertprococng ut nih tener comple The canoe ot ote Depend nll Deter cde oi fod to te frctinaor at «constant lenperture T and floorate Fo, regardless of all the factors potentially cape of courng the fartace le tonperaure fo dedate fom Wi dsl salu ating sce that the frp of the be sere hin te fore does el at any tine, ee Be ela Toe Observe the presence of the tue objectives rite to sft, pralut gu td proucton rate namely avacetempertae nit Tote equ age feng forte fama “rod andthe ceo Sesh ectively. “ 122 Evolving Effective Solutions The various phases in the evolution of : 1 ? tion of an acceptable sation to typical iedstealconfl problems are lhstratea by te fllowing dialogue betreent lant engier (PE), changed sit the responsiblity of smeoth operation ofthe Plant this case, the furnace), and the contal engineer (CE), Who. feoponibie for asating Sn providing cchtons to corel rate process operation probe, Phase Water your opertig beset PE: Wie woul lke to deliver the crude ol to the fractionation unit downstream ata consistent argt temperature ™. The value ofthis et point is usually determinedsy ecrlec yp an deiedrenary Boog ene gery pone 2S ean er lio Ty) 0 a igh he fame be se ST See te Fy and fret tetra ye Sore eal ton otal & cntlebiveleneke tua he pce capt Tas da Losses acca Sage 2 care eit wc ee do oy ae cose Co ee oan cs Seely pre he coe fermen Oe ood Sar reacties Fe a ol ed tf nde pert rece er = 1S ce posal moran ash so See ate ar A hy vag 1 es ha ane Beart mma de yout tein eb etn we Serr ep x nnn tempt Ten fw mete aoe Ee tage whee cape ew fOr; Se tat ec enpentan hae 2 a en ect aetye take 2 Do youbavea process model avallable for this furnace? Noy but there's an oper who understands the process behavior quite well. We have tried running the process on marual (contra) using ths operetor, but the results werent acceptable. The record shown below, taken off the outlet {emperaturestp-char recorder, fairly eepresentative. This is the response toa sep crease inthe inlet feedrate F. (See igure 15). Doyou have an ides of what might be responsible? Yeo We think it has to do with basic human Imitators his anticipation of the effect ofthe eed disturbance is ingenious, but imperfect, and he just couldnt react Manval Contre Tex. ‘qHAP 1 INTRODUCTORY CONCEPTS OF PROCESS CONTROL u {ast enough, or accurately enough, tothe influence ofthe addtional disturbance ‘fects of variations in fuel supply pressure and heat content CCE: Lets start with a siople feedback system then. Les instal temperature contr that uses measurements of the furnace outlet tempersture T to adjust the fuel flowrate Q, accordingly [Figure 1a]. We will use a PID controler with these controller parameter values 10 start with (proportional band = 70%, rece ate = 2 fepeats/ min, dria tie = 0), Feel feet retune the controll if necessary [Lats discuss the results as soon as you are ready. Phase 3 PE: Thepecormance ofthe feedback sem se Figure 160) ven though beter than ‘wth man conto isl rat acceptable; too much low temperature feed sent ‘beh raionabr during the ist fw hous following each Brought incre. CE (Alter ite trough) Whats needed ia means by which we ean change ful ow the insane we detect charg in the feed flowrate. Try this fediroard contol suategy by isl fat Figure 17) augment is wit eda only yu find necessary gure 18) Phase PE: With the felforwerd strategy by itself, there was the definite advantage of _qucidy compensating forthe effet ofthe disturbance, a lest nally, The main problem was the nonavailablit ofthe furnace out temperature measurement fo ‘the controller, withthe result that we had ofets. Since we can afford the persistent ost, we had to activate the feedback system. As expected the addition [Ffeanck retin this problem (Fgure 180) FE:’ We have one major problem lft: the furnace outlet temperature ail fluctuates, sometimes rather unacceptably, whenever we cbserve variations in the fuel delivery pressure. In addition, we ae pretty sure thatthe variations inthe fuels Iheat content contributes to these fluctuations, but we have no easy way of ‘quantitatively monitoring these heat content variations. At this point, however, they don’t seem tobe as slgnifieant as supply pressure variations (CE. Lets focus onthe problem caused by the varlations in fuel supply pressure. Is easy tose hy this shouldbe a problem. The contrller can only adjust the valve fn the Fue line: and even though we expect that specific valve postions should correspond to specific fuel flowrate, tis will be so only the delivery pressure is constant. Any fluctuations in delivery pressure means thatthe controler il rot get the fel flowrate take for ‘We mast stall an additional lop to ensure that the temperature controller gets the actual flowrate changeit demands; a mere change in valve poston will not ensure his. ‘We will Install a fow controller in between the temperature controller and the ‘control valve on the fuel lin. The task ofthis ier loop conraller will bet fencure thatthe fuel Howrate demanded bythe terperaure controller is actually delivered to the furnace regardless of supply pressure variations. The addition of this casade contol system should work well (Se Figure L9 forthe final contol system and its performance) Having overheard the Successful design and installation of a control system, let us now continue with our introduction to the basic concepts and terminology of process control.. n zor Setpint 7 - @ Figure 1.6, The fedback control system. . ba @ o Figure 1.7. Thefediorward conto system, « » Figure 1.9, The final control system (eedforward/fodback-plu-cascade) ‘chap 1 INTRODUCTORY CONCEPTS OF PROCESS CONTROL 23 43 VARIABLES OF A PROCESS St ey sara al Ce nn ert Fenn ee etl wean ane te cera sya the eben scoring wht ey simply provide information about process conditions, ot whether they ese A Te mn oe a” cae et neo he oN ee pte cae Input variables are those that independently stimulate the system and can thereby induce change in the internal conditions of the process. Output variables are those by which ove obtains information about the internal state of the process. It is appropriate, at this point, to introduce what is called a slate variable and distinguish it from an output variable. State variables are generally ecognized as v That minimum set of variables essential for completely describing the internal state (or condition) of a proces. ‘The state variables are therefore the true indicators of the internal state of the process system. The actual manifestation of these internal states by ‘measurement is what yields an ouput. Thus the output variable is, in actual fact, some measurement either of a single state variable or a combination of state variables. ‘On a second level, itis possible to further classify input variables as follows: 1. Those input variables that are at our disposal to manipulate freely as we choose are called manipulated (or control) variables. 2, ‘Those over which we have no control (Le, those whose values we are in no position to decide at will) are called disturbance variables. Finally, we must note that some process variables (output as well as input variables) are directly available for measurement while some are not. Those process variables whose values are made available by direct on-line measurement are classified as measured variables; the others are called ‘unmeasured variables (see Figure 1.10.) Although output variables are defined as measurements, it is possible that some outpuits are not measured on-line (no instrument i installed on the process) Dut require infrequent samples tobe taken to the laboratory fer analysis, Thus for control system design these are usually considered unmeasured outputs in the Sense that the measurements are not available frequently enough for control Purposes.“ vrropucrion nerur pine Moassted Varese Maret nor = gurrur meet 5) careancat Semele Ma ee PROCESS Venables ‘Unnearurd Figure 140, The varlables of process. Let us now illustrate these ideas with the following examples. ‘THE VARIABLES OF A STIRRED HEATING TANK Example 11 PROCESS. Consider the stirred heating tank process shown in Figure 1.11 below, in which i is fequited to regulate the temperature ofthe liquid inthe tank (as messured by a {hermosouple) inthe face oituations in inlet temperature T. The lowratesin and ‘out are constant and equ. Ba, Sean Flowrate INPUT VARIABLES: steam atin (MANIPULATED) ‘To nlet stream temperature [DISTURBANCE] ‘OUTPUT VARIABLE: tank tomporature MEASURABLE Figure 121, Thestired heating tank proces. In this case, clearly our main cancer is with the temperature of the liquid in the tank thus Tis the outpul vor Tes, in ack a messurel output variable, since iis -meneured bya thermocouple. ‘Observe now thatthe value ofthis variable Ts afocted by changes inthe wales ‘ofboth Trand Q. These ave therefore the inpul variables. However, only Q can be Sronipulated at will. Thus, Ti disturbance parable, while Q isthe manipulated arible. Let us now formally consider the variables of the industrial furnace discussed in Section 1.2. ‘CHAP 1 INTRODUCTORY CONCEPTS OF PROCESS CONTROL 1s Example 1.2 THE VARIABLES OF AN INDUSTRIAL FURNACE Referring back the description of he process given earlier in Section 12 it is clear {bat 7, the outlet temperature, is out output el.” Next we noe tat he val of {hs variables allowed by a host of ther variables hut st be eareflly considered inorder to cssity them propery. ‘Of al the variables hat can affect the value of T only Qy, the ai Bowrate and (Qe the fuel owrat, canbe manipulted at wil hey are therefore the manputed Er conto varies “Te other variables, F (he ne fedrate The inlet temperature), Pp (he fuel supply pressure) and Ay (eft hest cone allvary ina manner tat we cannot onto hence Wey areal disturbance variable, “hs proces therfore has on ouput ari, to mnpuleted inp (e, com) ri, ord four detwrbence erie, (One final point of interest. As we shall see later on in Chapter 4, when we take up the issue of mathematical descriptions of process systems, it is fairly ‘common to represent the process variables as fellows: y — the output variable % — the input (control) variable d- — the disturbance variable, and x — the state variable (whenever needed) ‘The appropriate corresponding vector quantities, y, u, 4, and x;are used whenever the variables involved in each category number more than one. We shall adopt this notation in our subsequent discussion. 14 THE CONCEPT OF A PROCESS CONTROL SYSTEM ‘As eatlier noted, the dynamic (Le,-ever changing) nature of chemical processes makes it imperative that we have some means of effectively monitoring, and inducing change in, the process variables of interest. Ina typical chemical process (recall, for example, the furnace of Section 1.2) the process control system is the entity that is charged with the responsibility for monitoring outputs, making decisions about how best to nanipulete inputs so a3 to obtain desired output behavior, and effectively implementing such decisions on the process. It is therefore convenient to break down the responsibility of the control system into the following three major tasks: 1. Monitoring process output variables by measurement 2, Making rational decisions regarding what corrective action is needed. fn the basis of the information about the current and desired state of the process Effectively implementing these decisions on the process ‘When these tasks are carried out manually by a human operator we have a ‘manual control system; on the other hand, a control system in which these tasks are carried out in an automatic fashion by a machine is known as an16 INTRODUCTION ‘automatic control system; in particular, when the machine involved is a ‘computer, we have a computer contol system. With the possible exception of the manual control system, all other control systems require certain hardware elements for carrying out each of the above itemized tasks. Let us now introduce these hardware elements, reserving a more detailed discussion of the principles and practice of control system implementation to Chapter 2. 1.41 Control System Hardware Elements ‘The hardware elements required for the realization of the control system's tasks of measurerient, decision making, and corrective action implementation typically fall into the following categories: censors, controllers, transmitters, ‘and final control elements. Sensors “The first task, that of acquiring information about the statu of the process output variables, is carried out by sensors (also called measuring devices or primary cements). Ta mst process control applications, the sensors are usually Freeded for pressure, temperature, liquid level, flow, and composition Ineasurements, Typical examples are: thermocouples (for temperature neasurements), diferentia! pressure eels (for liquid level measurements), ‘esflquld chromatographs (for composition measurements), ec Controllers . ‘The decision maker, and hence the “heart” of the control system, is the controller, tis the hardware element with "builtin" capacity for performing ‘be only task requiring some form of “inteligence.” ‘The controller hardware may be pneumatic in nature (in which case it ‘operates on ar signals) or it may be electronic (in which case, it operates on 0.