Process Control and Dynamics(ChEg4183)

Process Control
 Process control is the study and application of automatic
control in the field of chemical engineering.
 The primary objective of process control is to maintain a
process at the desired operating conditions, safely and
efficiently, while satisfying environmental and product
quality requirements.
 Proper application of process control can actually
improve the safety and profitability of a process.
 Even though rapidly decreasing costs of digital devices and increasing
computer speed have enabled high‐performance measurement and control
systems, it is not an easy task to achieve this because modern plants tend to
be difficult to operate due to high complexity and highly integrated process
units.
 The possibility of improving the performance and the profitability is
illustrated by the figures below.
In this example, acceptable product quality requires that the impurity of the
product is below the limit indicated in the figures. However, we do not want
to make the product purer than necessary, because it would increase the
production costs. The figure to the left illustrates a situation where the
impurity fluctuates a lot, but the quality requirements are fulfilled.
 The figure in the center illustrates that the fluctuations can be reduced
by better control.
 Then it is possible to increase the average impurity in the product, as
illustrated by the figure to the right, without violation of the quality
requirements. Obviously, this also reduces the production costs.
 As a consequence of global competition, rapidly changing economic
conditions, and stringent environ‐mental and safety regulations, process
control has become increasingly important in the process industries .
Process Dynamics
A process is a dynamical system, whose behavior changes over
time. Control systems are needed to handle such changes in the
process. Thus, it is important to understand the process dynamics
 Transient operation occurs during important situations such as start‐ups
and shutdowns, unusual process disturbances, and planned transitions from
one product grade to another.
 Even at normal operation, a process does not operate at a steady state
(with all time derivatives of the differential equations exactly zero) because
there are always variations in external variables, such as feed composition
or cooling medium temperature.
 Thus, knowledge of steady‐state (or static) process properties, taught in
many engineering courses, is not sufficient for control design.
Feedback Control
 The study of process control introduces a major new concept: feedback
control. This concept is central to most automation systems that monitor
a process and adjusts some variables to maintain the system at (or near)
desired conditions.
 Chemical engineers apply these principles to heat exchangers, mass
transfer equipment, chemical reactors, and so forth.
Objectives of Control
A control system is required to perform either one or both task:
1. Maintain the process at the operational conditions and set points
Many processes should work at steady state conditions or in a state in
which it satisfies all the benefits for a company such as budget, yield,
safety, and other quality objectives.
In many real-life situations, a process may not always remain static
under these conditions and therefore can cause substantial losses to the
process. One of the ways a process can wander away from these
conditions is by the system becoming unstable, meaning process
variables oscillate from its physical boundaries over a limited time span.
 An example of this would be a water tank in a heating and
cooling process without any drainage and is being constantly
filled with water. The water level in the tank will continue to
rise and eventually overflow. This uncontrolled system can be
controlled simply by adding control valves and level sensors in
the tank that can tell the engineer or technician the level of
water in the tank. Another way a process can stray away from
steady state conditions can be due to various changes in the
environmental conditions, such as composition of a feed,
temperature conditions, or flow rate.
2.Transition the process from one operational condition to
another
In real-life situations, engineers may change the process
operational conditions for a variety of different reasons, such as
customer specifications or environment specifications. Although,
transitioning a process from one operational condition to another
can be detrimental to a process, it also can be beneficial depending
on the company and consumer demands.
Definitions and Terminology
In controlling a process there exist two types of classes of
variables.
1. Input Variable :-This variable shows the effect of the
surroundings on the process. It normally refers to those factors
that influence the process. An example of this would be the flow
rate of the steam through a heat exchanger that would change the
amount of energy put into the process. There are effects of the
surrounding that are controllable and some that are not. These are
broken down into two types of inputs.
a. Manipulated inputs: variable in the surroundings can be control
by an operator or the control system in place.
b. Disturbances: inputs that can not be controlled by an operator or
control system. There exist both measurable and immeasurable
disturbances.
2. Output variable- Also known as the control variable. These are
the variables that are process outputs that effect the surroundings.
An example of this would be the amount of CO2 gas that comes out
of a combustion reaction. These variables may or may not be
measured.
Depending on how many controlled outputs and manipulated
inputs we have in a chemical process we can distinguish the
control configurations into:
1. Single input-Single Output (SISO)- for one control(output)
variable there exist one manipulate (input) variable that is used to
affect the process. For example, for the tank heater system: If the
control objective (controlled output) is to keep the liquid level at
a desired value by manipulating the effluent flowrate, then we
have a SISO system.
2. Multiple input-multiple output(MIMO)- There are several
control (output) variable that are affected by several manipulated
(input) variables used in a given process.
For example, for the tank heater system: On the contrary, if our
control objectives are (more than one) to keep the level and the
temperature of the liquid at desired values, by manipulating (more
than one) the steam flowrate and the effluent flowrate, then we
have a MIMO system.
 In the chemical industry most of the processing systems are
multiple input, multiple-output systems. Since the design of
SISO systems is simpler we will start first with them and
progressively we will cover the design of MIMO systems.
Cascade: A control system with 2 or more controllers, a
"Master" and "Slave"loop. The output of the "Master"
controller is the set point for the "Slave“ controller.
Dead Time: The amount of time it takes for a process to
start changing after a disturbance in the system.
Derivative Control: The "D" part of a PID controller.
With derivative action the controller output is
proportional to the rate of change of the process variable
or error.*
Error: In process controls, error is defined as:
Error = set point - process variable.
Integral Control: The "I" part of a PID
controller. With integral action the controller
output is proportional to the amount and
duration of the error signal.
PID Controller: PID controllers are
designed to eliminate the need for continuous
operator attention. They are used to
automatically adjust system variables to hold
a process variable at a set point. Error is
defined above as the difference between set
point and process variable.
Proportional Control: The "P" part of a PID
controller. With proportional action the
controller output is proportional to the
amount of the error signal.
Set point:
Design Methodology for Process Control
1. Understand the process: Before attempting to control a
process it is necessary to understand how the process works and
what it does.
2. Identify the operating parameters: Once the process is well
understood, operating parameters such as temperatures, pressures,
flow rates, and other variables specific to the process must be
identified for its control.
3. Identify the hazardous conditions: In order to maintain a
safe and hazard-free facility, variables that may cause safety
concerns must be identified and may require additional control.
4. Identify the measurable: It is important to identify the
measurable that correspond with the operating parameters in
order to control the process. Measurable for process systems
include:
• Temperature
• Pressure
• Flow rate
 PH
 Humidity
 Level
 Concentration
 Viscosity
 Conductivity
 Turbidity
 Redox/potential
 Electrical behavior
 Flammability
5. Identify the points of measurement: Once the measurable are
identified, it is important locate where they will be measured so
that the system can be accurately controlled.
6. Select measurement methods: Selecting the proper type of
measurement device specific to the process will ensure that the
most accurate, stable, and cost-effective method is chosen. There
are several different signal types that can detect different things.
These signal types include:
• Electric
• Pneumatic
• Light
• Radio waves
• Infrared (IR)
• Nuclear
7. Select control method: In order to control the operating parameters, the
proper control method is vital to control the process effectively. On/off is
one control method and the other is continuous control. Continuous control
involves Proportional (P), Integral (I), and Derivative (D) methods or some
combination of those three.
8. Select control system: Choosing between a local or distributed
control system that fits well with the process effects both the cost
and efficiency of the overall control.
9. Set control limits: Understanding the operating parameters
allows the ability to define the limits of the measurable parameters
in the control system.
10. Define control logic: Choosing between feed-forward, feed-
backward, cascade, ratio, or other control logic is a necessary
decision based on the specific design and safety parameters of the
system.
11. Create a redundancy system: Even the best control system will have
failure points; there fore it is important to design a redundancy system to
avoid catastrophic failures by having back-up controls in place.
12. Define a fail-safe: Fail-safes allow a system to return to a safe state after
a breakdown of the control. This fail-safe allows the process to avoid
hazardous conditions that may otherwise occur.
13. Set lead/lag criteria: Depending on the control logic used in the process,
there may be lag times associated with the measurement of the operating
parameters. Setting lead/lag times compensates for this effect and allow for
accurate control.
14. Investigate effects of changes before/after:
By investigating changes made by implementing the control
system, unforeseen problems can be identified and corrected
before they create hazardous conditions in the facility.
15. Integrate and test with other systems: The proper
integration of a new control system with existing process
systems avoids conflicts between multiple systems.

Defining three general types of control configurations

a. Feedback control configuration
 Uses direct measurements of the controlled variables to adjust
the values of the manipulated variables (Figure2.3).
 The objective is to keep the controlled variables at desired levels
(set points). Examples of feedback control in Figures 1.2 and
1.3.
b. Inferential control configuration: Uses secondary measurements,
because the controlled variables are not measured to adjust the values
of the manipulated variables (Figure 2.4). The objective here is to
keep the (unmeasured) controlled variables at desired levels.
C. Feedforward control configuration. Uses direct measurements of the
disturbances to adjust the values of the manipulated variables (Figure
2.5).
 The objective here is to keep the values of the controlled
output variables at desired levels. An example of
feedforward control configuration we can see in Figure 1.4.
 E. 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. For the design of
the controller we must answer the following question:
 How is the information taken from the measurements used
to adjust the values of the manipulated variables?. The
answer to this question constitutes the control law, which is
implemented automatically by the controller.
Example 2.12
Let us consider the problem of controlling the liquid level (h) in
a tank (Figure 2.6), in the presence of changes in the inlet
flowrate Fi. Our Measurement will be the liquid level and the
manipulated variable, the outlet flowrate. The feedback control
configuration used is shown in Figure 2.6. The question is:
"How should F change with time to keep the liquid level
constant when F1 changes?" In other words, we want to
develop the control law.
o Let us assume that the heater has been operating for some time
and that its liquid level has been kept constant at hs while the
liquid temperature has remained constant at a value Ts'
o We say that the heater has been operating at a steady state
(where nothing changes). Under these conditions the material
balance around the tank yields,
where Fi,s and Fs are the inlet and outlet flowrates at steady-state. Let hs
be the liquid level corresponding to steady state operation. Suppose that
the Fi increases suddenly as it is shown in Figure 2.7. If nothing is done
on F, the liquid level h will start rising with time. How h changes with
time will be given from the transient material balance around the tank, i.e.
where A is the cross sectional area of the tank.(2.2) Subtract eqn.
(2.1) from (2.2) and take
 The variable ȟ = h – hs denotes the -error or -deviation of the
liquid level from the desired value hs. We want to drive this error
to zero by manipulating the flowrate F.

 The simplest control law is to require that the flowrate F increases

or decreases proportionally to the error h - h S ’ i.e.

 This law is called Proportional Control law, and the parameter a is

known as Proportional Gain-. From equation (2.4) we notice that
when h - hs = 0 then F = Fs and consequently b = Fs. Thus the
proportional control takes the form,
 If we substitute F given from equation (2.5) into equation (2.3) we
take,

 This last differential equation is solved for (h - hs), and for

various values of the proportional gain a yields the solutions
shown in Figure 2.8. below
 We notice that none of the solutions is satisfactory since
h - hs # 0. Thus, we conclude that the proportional control law-is
not acceptable. Considerable improvement in the quality of the
resulting control can be obtained if we use a different control law
known as Integral Control.
 According to this law the value of the manipulated variable F
is proportional to the time integral of the error (h - hs), i.e.
The solution of eqn. (2.8) for various values of the parameter a' is
shown in Figure 2.9.
 We notice that integral control is an acceptable control law
since it drives the error h - h to zero. We also notice that depending on
the value of a' the error h - hs returns to zero faster or slower; oscillates
for a longer or shorter time, etc. In other words, the quality of control
depends on the value of a' in a very profound manner.
 Note: In subsequent chapters we will see how to solve
integrodifferential equations like eqn. (2.8). Combining the
proportional control action with the integral control action we have a
new control law, known as Proportional-Integral Control. According
to this law the value of the outlet flowrate is given by,
HARDWARE FOR A PROCESS CONTROL SYSTEM
In this chapter we will discuss the physical elements (hardware)
constituting a control system as it is implemented in practice for the
control of real physical processes.
HARDWARE ELRMMENTS OF A CONTROL -SYSTEM.
In every control configuration we can distinguish the following hardware
elements:
a. The chemical process: It represents the material equipment together
with the physical or chemical operations that occur there,
b. The measuring instruments or sensors: Such instruments are used to
measure the disturbances, the controlled output variables or to measure
secondary variables, and are the main sources of information about
what is going on in the process. Characteristic examples are: ,
- Thermocouples or resistance thermometers, for measuring the
temperature,
- Venturi meters, for measuring the flowrate,
- Gas chromatographs, for measuring the composition of a stream, etc.
C . Transducers or transmitters: Many measurements cannot be
used for control until they are converted to physical quantities (like
electric voltage or current, or a pneumatic signal, i.e. compressed
air or liquid) which can be transmitted easily. The transducers or
transmitters are used for that purpose. For example, the Strain
Gauges are metallic conductors which change their resistance
when subjected to mechanical strain. Thus, they can be used to
convert a pressure signal to an electric one.
Transmission lines: They are used to carry the measurement
signal from the measuring device to the controller.
 In the past the transmission lines were pneumatic
(compressed air or compressed liquids) but with the advent
of the electronic analog controllers and especially the
expanding usage of digital computers for control, the
transmission lines carry electric signals.
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 final control element: This is the hardware element that
implements in real life the decision taken by the controller.

The control valve is the most frequently encountered final

control element but not the only one. Other typical final control
elements for a chemical process are : -
- Relay switches, providing on-off control,
- variable speed pumps
- variable speed compressors
Recording elements : These are used to provide. a visual
demonstration of how the chemical process behaves.
Usually the variables recorded are the variables which are directly
measured as a part of the control system. Various types of
recorders (temperature, pressure, flowrate, composition, etc.) can
be seen in the control room of: a chemical plant, monitoring
continuously the behavior of the process.