Process Dynamics and Control

1. Introduction to Process Control

What is process control and why do we need control?
What is easy to explain, but why is more important from
an engineering point of view. To understand why, lets
design a process without considering any control.

Design of a Chemical Process (with no concern of control)

Your boss comes and says: Heres all the money that you
need. Build me a factory to produce diesel fuel.
How are you going to do that? More importantly, hows your
four years of chemical engineering education related with this
end?
Lets make a very brief summary of what you have learned.
You have studied each part of the puzzle in a separate course:

Fluid Mechanics: Mass Transfer:

Heat Transfer: Reactor Design and Kinetics:

In those courses, you have, for most cases, applied steady

state balances.
Lets use an existing design of the process, where coal is converted
to fuel.
CO 2
CO CO 2 SO2
H2O
SO2 CO SO2
H2 SO2 H2
air O2 N2 N2 N2
1 2 3 4 5

H2 H2
coal H2 N2
N2 powder N2
6 7
N2 H2
N2
NH 3
N2 coal coal
O2 powder powder gases
8 9 10 11 12
N2 N2

coal solids
powder diesel fuel liquids
in air N2
N2
14 CH 4 CH 4
13 H2S
ash
coal lumps
in air S 15
S H2 H2S
17 16

H2
 Lets say we have agreed on which unit operations to use. The
next step is decide on the capacity of the process.
Why? Because we have to know how large reactors, distillation
columns, heat exchangers, pipes, etc. are going to be.
So comes the concept of operating (or design) conditions!
Each equipment is designed to operate at a certain set of
conditions.
Ex. Your boss wants a fuel production of 1 m3/min. You design
the equipment in such a way to handle this capacity and make
the pipe connections to maintain this production rate.
The important point is that most of the chemical processes is
continuous (like the one described here), so it seems that
unsteady balances are not required in design. Steady state
balances will be sufficient.
 So where is automatic control in this picture?
Why, on earth, did we have to learn those differential equations
in Maths and Modeling Courses???
We, chemical engineers, would not have to deal with
differential equations (at least in the Undergraduate level), if it
werent for control. Modeling is a tool for process control.
So comes the why question again.
The design scheme without control, explained here, would
have worked if
1. Operating conditions would stay constant forever, and
2. All of our equipment were perfect, and process stayed at its
operating conditions.
So, to achieve (1), we use servo control; to achieve (2), we use
regulatory control.
 What is process control?
To control a process means to affect the
behavior of the system in a desirable way.

Benefits of process control

Product quality
Profit optimization
Equipment protection
Environmental protection
 A Process Control System
Easier to understand on a real example:
A reactor with cooling jacket (no rxn for the sake
of simplifying the process)
 Design Parameters of the equipment:
D = 1.286 m
H = 2.573 m
85% volume of CSTR is full
75% of lateral area of CSTR jacketed

Parameters of the Process:

U = 300 W/(m2. oC)
cp = 4.18106 j/(m3. oC)
jcpj = 3.28106 j/(m3. oC)

Operating Conditions (steady state):

Ff = 2 L/s = 2 10-3 m3/s
Tf = 23 oC

If process is to be operated at T = 15 oC, what should be

Fjf? (0 L/s< Fjf <3 L/s)
1. Design of the Process (Steady State Analysis)

Steady-state energy balance around the CSTR:

Ffcp(Tf - Tss) = UA(Tss Tjss)

Steady-state energy balance around the jacket:

jFjfcpj(Tjss - Tjfss) = UA(Tss Tjss)

Two equations, two unknowns. Solve by any method

youd like (such as MATLAB)
fsolve('jacket_design', [5 -10], optimset('fsolve'), 15);

Fjf 1.52 L / s
T
j 13.6 C
If process is to be operated at T = 14 oC, what should be Fjf?
fsolve('jacket_design', [5 -20], optimset('fsolve'), 14)

Fjf 2.6 L / s
T
j 18 .2 C
Tank Temperature vs. Jacket Fluid Flow Rate
2. Start-up of the Process (Unsteady State Simulation)
dT F f
T f T UA
T T j
dt V c pV
T (0) 23 C
dT j
T jf T j
F jf UA
T T j T (0)
dt Vj j c pjV j j 23 C
[t, x] = ode45('jacket_dynamic', 8000, [23 23]);
Assume that the initial volume
of the CSTR is equal to its
steady state value, and jacket
is full (note that if the CSTR
and/or jacket is empty,
additionally we need to
perform transient mass
balances)
 If neither any variable in the process changes, nor my manager changes
his/her mind about the process, then this process will work fine without a
controller, as has been taught in other chemical engineering courses.
3. If there is a disturbance? (Unsteady State Simulation)
Ff suddenly increases to 2.3 L/s
 So what should be done to bring T to 15 oC?
(The concept of feedback control)

1) Put a human controller. Let he/she measure the temperature of

the outlet. If T is higher than 15 oC, decrease Tjf or increase Fjf.
 Any other way of bringing T to 15 oC?

2) Put a automatic controller. Let it measure the temperature of the

outlet. If T is higher than 15 oC, it will automatically decrease Tjf or
increase Fjf.
Ff suddenly increases to 2.3 L/s (at t = 100 s), but this time there is automatic control!
 Process Control Terminology

Process: CSTR with cooling jacket

Controlled variable: Output of interest, variable that we want to control (T).
Manipulated variable: Input to the process, on which we have the power to
manipulate, so that the controlled variable be kept at the desired value (Tjf or Fjf).
Disturbance: Variables which affect the controlled variable, but over which we do not
have manipulative power (Tf, Ff, stirring rate, temperature of the surroundings,
impurities in the feeds, etc.).
 Process Control Terminology Continued

Measuring device: Thermocouple (Tm is measured variable)

Setpoint: Desired value of the controlled variable (Tsp)
Error: Difference between Tsp and T; e = Tsp T
Control Valve: Instrument used to adjust the manipulated variable.
 Process Control Terminology Continued
Process

Openloop Process Closedloop Process

F jf f (T ) F jf f (T )