Advanced Process Control Benefits

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... 

The current research focus within the sensor development field seems to be concentrated on miniaturization while incorporating multiple quantitative analytical capabilities. Other high-demand characteristics are shorter response time, minimal hardware requirements, multiple analyte and media capabilities, and improved sensitivity, selectivity, and specificity (Zemel 1990). Advancements and improvements for both biological and chemical threat agent sensors will have numerous other benefits to diverse applications, such as quality and process control, biomedical analysis, medical diagnostics, fragrance analysis, environmental pollution monitoring, and control forensics. 

Advanced control systems are becoming a necessity because of the ever increasing pressures toward product quality and reliability. All material processing operations can benefit from improved process control. However, increased control on the more complex systems, such as composites, compounds and blends, and on the more critical applications will yield the highest benefits. In addition, process control schemes based on process variables alone are not sufficient anymore... 

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]. 

Canney, W. M., The Future of Advanced Process Control Promises More Benefits and Sustained Value, Oil Gas Journal, 101 (16), 48 (2003). 

Devlin, J.F., L.A. Edwards, and J.E. Crosby Fluid Coker Benefits from Advanced Control, Hydrocarbon Processing, 55 (June 1992). 

Houk, B. G. Kelly, D. N. Davenport, S. L. and Fatora HI, F. C., "Closed-Loop Plant-Wide Optimization and Advanced Control Technologies Capture Many Benefits", Paper Presented at the International Conference on Productivity and Quality in the Hydrocarbon Processing Industry (1992). 

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