Process Control System

Process control is used in continuous production – in manufacturing and in other fields

and industries where some kind of material is produced without any kind of interruption
– as well as in “batch processing.” It’s used to automatically control the conditions in
which a product is made – ensuring better quality and efficiency.
Wastewater management, for example, involves the continuous and unceasing
treatment of greywater and sewage, without any interruptions – so this is a field in
which process control is used.
Basically, process control combines the disciplines of control engineering and chemical
engineering – and uses specialized, often custom-built industrial control systems. These
systems control the flow, output, mixture, and other such aspects of a continuous
production process, based on feedback from sensors, data monitoring systems and
more.
 Feedback Control System
o A feedback loop is a common and powerful tool when designing a control
system. Feedback loops take the system output into consideration, which
enables the system to adjust its performance to meet a desired output
response.
o When talking about control systems it is important to keep in mind that
engineers typically are given existing systems such as actuators, sensors,
motors, and other devices with set parameters, and are asked to adjust
the performance of those systems. In many cases, it may not be possible
to open the system (the "plant") and adjust it from the inside:
modifications need to be made external to the system to force the system
response to act as desired. This is performed by adding controllers,
compensators, and feedback structures to the system.
 Negative vs Positive Feedback
 It turns out that negative feedback is almost always the
most useful type of feedback. When we subtract the value of
the output from the value of the input (our desired value),
we get a value called the error signal. The error signal
shows us how far off our output is from our desired input.
 Positive feedback has the property that signals tend to
reinforce themselves, and grow larger. In a positive
feedback system, noise from the system is added back to
the input, and that in turn produces more noise. As an
example of a positive feedback system, consider an audio
amplification system with a speaker and a microphone.
Placing the microphone near the speaker creates a positive
 feedback loop, and the result is a sound that grows louder
and louder. Because the majority of noise in an electrical
system is high-frequency, the sound output of the system
becomes high-pitched.

 Ratio Control System

o Ratio control system is a technique where in variable is manipulated to
keep it as a ratio proportional to another ratio control system is a special
type feed forward control system widely used in the process industries.
The objective of ratio control system is to maintain the ratio of two
variables at a specified value.
 Feed Forward Control System
o The objective of feed-forward control is to measure disturbances and
compensate for them before the controlled variable deviates from the
setpoint. Feed-forward control basically involves a control equation which
has certain corrective terms which account for predicted disturbances
entering the system. The equation is only effective for gains in a steady
state process. Dynamic compensation should be used in the control
equation if there are any dynamic deviations with the process response to
the control action. This dynamic compensation ability will be discussed
further in the next section.
o Feed-forward control is an open loop system. In an open loop system, the
controller uses current, or live, information of the system to generate
appropriate actions by using predetermined models. The sensor providing
the reference command to the closed loop actuator is not an error signal
generated from a feedback sensor but a command based on
measurements. This is the defining characteristic of an open loop system,
in which the controller does not manipulate the system by trying to
minimize errors in the controlled variable. Feed-forward control is used in
many chemical engineering applications. These include heat exchangers,
CSTRs, distillation columns and many other applications. A typical furnace,
shown below, is heating up an input fluid using fuel gas.
 Cascade Control System
o In single-loop control, the controller’s set point is set by an operator, and
its output drives a final control element. For example: a level controller
driving a control valve to keep the level at its set point.
o In a cascade control arrangement, there are two (or more) controllers of
which one controller’s output drives the set point of another controller. For
example: a level controller driving the set point of a flow controller to
keep the level at its set point. The flow controller, in turn, drives a control
valve to match the flow with the set point the level controller is
requesting.
o Cascade control can improve control system performance over single-loop
control whenever either: (1) Disturbances affect a measurable
intermediate or secondary process output that directly affects the primary
process output that we wish to control; or (2) the gain of the secondary
process, including the actuator, is nonlinear. In the first case, a cascade
control system can limit the effect of the disturbances entering the
secondary variable on the primary output. In the second case, a cascade
control system can limit the effect of actuator or secondary process gain
variations on the control system performance. Such gain variations usually
arise from changes in operating point due to setpoint changes or
sustained disturbances.
 Split Range Control System
o Split-range control is used when a single controller is employed to control
two final-control elements (two valves for example). In such a system, the
controller struggle to keep one controlled variable at the set point using
two manipulated variables.
o Typically, split-range control is found in temperature control applications,
but split-range control applications extend far beyond temperature
control.
o The concept of split-range control is easier to understand when illustrated
using applications such as a temperature control.
o In such an application, the process needs to be heated or cooled
depending of the product temperature.