WHY PROCESS CONTROL?

As competition becomes stiffer in the chemical marketplace and processes become more
complicated to operate, it is advantageous to make use of some form of automatic control.
Automatic control of a process offers many advantages, including

• Enhanced process safety

• Satisfying environmental constraints

• Meeting ever-stricter product quality specifications

• More efficient use of raw materials and energy

• Increased profitability

Control systems

Control systems are used to maintain process conditions at their desired values by
manipulating certain process variables to adjust the variables of interest

Fig 1.0

The controller compares the measurement signal of the controlled variable to the set point
(the desired value of the controlled variable). The difference between the two values is called
the error.

Error = (Set point value) (Measurement signal of controlled variable)

Depending upon the magnitude and sign of the error, the controller takes appropriate action
by sending a signal to the final control element, which provides an input to the process to
return the controlled variable to the set point. The concept of using information about the
deviation of the system from its desired state to control the system is called feedback control.
Information about the state of the system is “fed back” to a controller, which utilizes this
information to change the system in some way.

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The type of control system shown in Fig1.0 is termed a closed-loop feedback control system.
Closed-loop refers to the fact that the controller automatically acts to return the controlled
variable to its desired value. In contrast, an open-loop system would have the measurement
signal disconnected from the controller, and the controller output would have to be manually
adjusted to change the value of the controlled variable. An open-loop system is sometimes
said to be in manual mode as opposed to automatic mode (closed-loop). Negative feedback is
the most common type of signal feedback. Negative refers to the fact that the error signal is
computed from the difference between the set point and the measured signal. The negative
value of the measured signal is “fed back” to the controller and added to the set point to
compute the error.

Hardware Elements of a Control System

In every control configuration we can distinguish the following hardware elements:

 The chemical process

It represents the material equipment together with the physical or chemical

operations that occur there.

 The measuring instruments or sensors

Such instruments are used to measure the disturbances, the controlled output
variables, or secondary output variables, and are the main sources of information
about what is going on in the process. Characteristic examples are,

o Thermocouples or resistance thermometers, for measuring the temperature

o Venturi meters, for measuring the flow rate
o Gas chromatographs, for measuring the composition of a stream

 Transducers

Many measurements cannot be used for control until they are converted to physical
quantities (such as electric voltage or current, or a pneumatic signal, i.e., compressed
air or liquid) which can be transmitted easily. Transducers are used for that purpose.
For example, strain gauges are metallic conductors whose electric resistance changes when
they are subjected to mechanical strain. Thus they can be used to convert a pressure signal
to an electric one.

 Transmission lines

These are used to carry the measurement signal from the measuring device to the
controller. In the past, trans- mission lines were pneumatic (compressed air or
compressed liquids) but with the advent of electronic analog controllers and

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especially the expanding use of digital computers for control, transmission lines carry
electric signals. Many times the measurement signal coming from a measuring
device is very weak and cannot be transmitted over a long distance. In such cases the
transmission lines are equipped with amplifiers which raise the level of the signal.
For example, the output of a thermocouple is of the order of a few millivolts. Before it is
transmit- ted to the controller, it is amplified to the level of a few volts.

 The controller

This is the hardware element that has “intelligence." It receives the information from
the measuring devices and decides what action should be taken. The older
controllers were of limited intelligence, could perform very simple operations, and
could implement simple control laws. Today, with increasing use of digital computers
as controllers, the available machine intelligence has expanded tremendously,
and very complicated control laws can be implemented.

 The final control element

This is the hardware element that implements in real life the decision taken by the
controller. For example, if the controller "decides" that the flow rate of the outlet
stream should be increased (or decreased) in order to keep the liquid level in a tank at
the desired value it is the valve (on the effluent stream) that will implement this
decision, opening (or closing) by the commanded amount.

 Recording elements

These are used to provide a visual demonstration of how a chemical process behaves.
Usually, the variables recorded are the variables that are directly measured as part of the
control system. Various types of recorders (temperature, pressure, flow rate, composition,
etc.) can be seen in the control room of a chemical plant, continuously monitoring the
behaviour of the process. The recent introduction of digital computers in the process
control has also expanded the recording opportunities, through video display units (VDUs).

Design Elements of a Control System

1. Define control objectives

The central element in any control configuration is the process that we want to control.

The control objectives have to do with:

o Ensuring the stability of the process

o Suppressing the influence of external disturbances
o Optimizing the economic performance of a plant
o A combination of the above.

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 2. Select measurements

Whatever our control objectives are, we need some means to monitor the performance of
the chemical process. This is done by measuring the values of certain processing variables
(temperatures, pressures, concentrations, flow rates.)

It is self-evident that we would like to monitor directly the variables that represent
our control objectives, and this is what is done whenever possible. Such measurements
are called primary measurements.

It sometimes happens that our control objectives are not measurable quantities; that is,
they belong to the class of unmeasured outputs. In such cases we must measure other
variables which can be measured easily and reliably. Such supporting measurements are
called secondary measurements.

Then we develop mathematical relationships between the unmeasured outputs and the
secondary measurements; that is,

Unmeasured output = f (secondary measurements)

which allows us to determine the values of the unmeasured outputs (once the values
of the secondary measurements are available).

3. Select manipulated variables

Once the control objectives have been specified and the various measurements
identified, how we effect a change in the process is the next step. Usually in a process we
have a number of available input variables which can be adjusted freely. Which ones we
select to use as manipulated variables is a crucial question, as the choice will affect the
quality of the control actions we take.

4. Select the control configuration

A control configuration is the information structure that is used to connect the available
measurements to the available manipulated variables

Depending on how many controlled outputs and manipulated inputs we have in

a chemical process, we can distinguish the control configurations as either single-
input, single-output (SISO) or multiple- input, multiple-output (MIMO) control
systems.

General types of control configurations

 Feedback control configuration: uses direct measurements of the controlled

variables to adjust the values of the manipulated variables.
 Inferential control configuration: uses secondary measurements (because the
controlled variables cannot be measured) to adjust the values of the
manipulated variables

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  Feedforward control configuration: uses direct measurement of the disturbances
to adjust the values of the manipulated variables
5. Design the controller

In every control configuration, the controller is the active element that receives the
information from the measurements and takes appropriate control actions to adjust the values
of the manipulated variables.

Modeling

In order to analyse the behavior of a chemical process, we need a mathematical

representation of the physical and chemical phenomena taking place in it. Such a
mathematical representation constitutes the model of the system, while the activities
leading to the construction of the model will be referred to as modeling.

Modeling a chemical process is a very synthetic activity, requiring the use of all the basic
principles of chemical engineering science, such as thermodynamics, kinetics, transport
phenomena, etc. For the design of controllers for chemical processes, modeling is a very
critical step

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Models can be classified based on how they were obtained:

State Variables and State Equations for a Chemical Process

In order to characterize a processing system (tank heater, batch reactor, distillation

column, heat exchanger, etc.) and its behavior we need:

1. A set of fundamental dependent quantities whose values will describe the natural
state of a given system

2. A set of equations in the variables above which will describe how the natural state of
the given system changes with time

For most of the processing systems of interest to a chemical engineer there are only
three such fundamental quantities: mass, energy, and momentum. Quite often, though,
the fundamental dependent variables cannot be measured directly and conveniently. In
such cases we select other variables which can be measured conveniently, and when
grouped appropriately they determine the value of the fundamental variables. Thus
mass, energy, and momentum can be characterized by variables such as density,
concentration, temperature, pressure, and flow rate. These characterizing variables
are called state variables and their values define the state of a processing system

The equations that relate the state variables (dependent variables) to the various
independent variables are derived from application of the conservation principle on
the fundamental quantities and are called state equations.

The principle of conservation of a quantity S states that:

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The quantity S can be any of the following fundamental quantities:

o Total mass
o Mass of individual components
o Total energy
o Momentum

Additional Elements of the Mathematical Models

In addition to the balance equations, we need other relationships to express

thermodynamic equilibria, reaction rates, transport rates for heat, mass, momentum,
and so on. Such additional relationships needed to complete the mathematical
modeling of various chemical and/or physical processes can be classified as follows:

 Transport rate equations

They are needed to describe the rate of mass, energy, and momentum transfer between
a system and its surroundings. These equations are developed in courses on transport
phenomena.

 Kinetic rate equations

They are needed to describe the rates of chemical reactions taking place in a system. Such
equations are developed in a course on chemical kinetics.

 Reaction and phase equilibria relationships

These are needed to describe the equilibrium situations reached during a chemical
reaction or by two or more phases. These relations are developed in courses on
thermodynamics.

 Equations of state

Equations of state are needed to describe the relationship among the intensive variables
describing the thermodynamic state of a system. The ideal gas law and the van der
Waals equation are two typical equations of state for gaseous systems.

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Degrees of freedom analysis

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Models

Mathematical model of a Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR)

Mathematical model of a Mixing Process

Mathematical model of Tubular Heat Exchanger

Mathematical model of an Ideal Binary Distillation Column

Solving ODE using Laplace transforms

The procedure is as follows:

1. Take the Laplace transform of both sides of the equation. The initial conditions are
incorporated at this step in the transforms of the derivatives.

2. Solve the resulting equation for the Laplace transform of the unknown function
algebraically.

3. Find the function of t that has the Laplace transform obtained in step 2. This function
satisfies the differential equation and initial conditions and hence is the desired solution.

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