Advanced Process Control Economics

Economic Incentives for Automation Projects Industrial applications of advanced process control strategies such as MFC are... 

Economic Incentives for Automation Projects Industrial applications of advanced process control strategies such as MPC are motivated by the need for improvements regarding safety, product quality, environmental standards, and economic operation of the process. One view of the economics incentives for advanced automation techniques is illustrated in Fig. 8-41. Distributed control systems (DCS) are widely used for data acquisition and conventional singleloop (PID) control. The addition of advanced regulatory control systems such as selective controls, gain scheduling, and time-delay compensation can provide benefits for a modest incremental cost. But... 

Peters and Timmerhaus Plant Design and Economics for Chemical Engineers Probstein and Hicks Synthetic Fuels Ray Advanced Process Control... 

The application of rigorous simulation packages, such as HYSYS, provides a valuable basis for the design and overall evaluation of advanced process control applications to the simulated processes. Steady state and dynamic simulations help in the process development by analysing and validating the design and/or ideas before their implementation to avoid costly modifications and to ensure safe operation. The simulation of the VCM plant is developed in HYSYS.PLANT in both steady state and dynamic modes and could be used for further economical, environmental and operational evaluations. Table 2 shows the characteristics of the VCM plant model and the detailed data and specifications of the main processes. Fig. 10 shows the process flowsheet of the simulated VCM plant in HYSYS including the main reactors and distillation columns. 

Vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) is one of the leading chemicals used mainly for manufacturing polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The PVC worldwide production capacity in 2005 was of about 35 million tons per year, with an annual growth of about 3%, placed after polyolefines but before styrene polymers. In the 1990s the largest plant in the USA had a capacity of about 635 ktons [1], but today there are several plants over one million tons. At this scale even incremental improvements in technology have a significant economic impact. Computer simulation, process optimization and advanced computer-control techniques play a determinant role. 

Future advances for the injection blow molding process are in tooling for bottles with special tabs, the use of process control to profile the melt injection pressure, and the use of microprocessor control when the volume of machines on the market makes it economical. 

For successful implementation of micro- and millireactor systems for production processes, the proof of economic benefits is cmdal. Methods of life cycle assessment are currently under development and have been described for selected processes in the literature [22,23]. Of particular importance in the cost assessment are the labor costs that lead to requirements of successful implementation of microreactor technology also in terms of computerized operation enabled by advances in process control and automation concepts [24,25]. 

Economic Market. The spice trade is controlled by many direct elements and responds slowly to supply and demand fluctuations. Resupply depends on growth to plant maturity, which for certain items, such as black pepper or nutmeg, can be several years. The raw material is directly affected by climate, adverse weather conditions, and control of plant diseases and insect and animal pests. Limited agricultural scientific advances are appHed to the cultivation of the botanicals, and there are many grades of product and degrees of quahty caused by different growing or processing conditions, sometimes by unknown factors as well. 

The immediate objective of an advanced control effort is to reduce the variance in an important controlled variable. However, this effort must be coupled with a commitment to adjust the target for this controlled variable so that the process is operated closer to the constraint. In large throughput (commodity) processes, very small shifts in operating targets can lead to large economic returns. 

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