Level Control System Analysis on Demineralization
Process in Water Treatment Plant Using Internal
Model Control (IMC) Method
Abstract— Water Treatment Plant (WTP) is a unit
that serves to process water from the sea that will enter
the boiler to be heated. In the Water Treatment Plant
there is Demin Water Tank which is used to store water
from treatment done before entering the Condenser to
supply water in the Boiler. Level control in Demin
Water Tank needs to be done to maintain the stability
of the water supply that goes into the condenser, so that
the water level is not too low which results in a decrease
in the level of condenser vacuum and causes the unit to
become a trip. Control system with Internal Model
Control (IMC) method aims to make the controller's
response have better performance than other control.
Keywords— Water Treatment Plant,
Demineralization, Demin Water Tank, Internal Model
Control
I. INTRODUCTION
In this millennial era, automatic control becomes
an important role for the development of the industrial
world. Industrial processes that require pressure,
temperature, humidity, viscosity or a certain mass rate
require automatic control to keep the resulting
production process in line with what is expected.
Demin Water Tank (MWT) is one of the
components in the power plant (Steam Power Plant)
that serves as a reservoir of water used to increase
water shortages in the system. The elevation or level
on demin water tank (MWT) that is too low will result
in a decrease in the level of vacuum condenser to
result in the unit becoming a trip[1].
One of the control systems in the industry is to use
PID control (Propotional, Integral, Derrivatif).
Control process is the most widely used process in the
industry because of the ease and simplicity of its
structure in tuning the control parameters. However,
there are still shortcomings in the control of PID,
namely the method of tuning with trial and error to
obtain PID parameters. In addition, PID also has a
drawback that has the value of settling time
parameters and response instability when the set point
is changed with a large enough value.
Feedback systems with PID controllers, which are
often applied to control systems in today's industry,
have some drawbacks. Among them is, if there is an
unexpected disruption in the control system.
Interference with control affects output. So the output
becomes incompatible with the set point, and affects
the time in reaching the set point. IMC is one of the
control methods, which uses the model of the plant
that you want to control. The IMC is designed on a
feedback controller, to create a stable output process,
and provide the desired response to set point changes,
and also to address the effects of direct interference on
process output.
From some of these shortcomings, control
techniques are needed that are able to overcome these
things. One method that can be used is the Internal
Model Control (IMC) control technique. IMC control
is a method that looks for the gain controler of the
plant model itself. IMC has very effective
performance as a controller. This IMC controller is
expected to adjust the water level accommodated and
the system can work well and efficiently.
IMC-PID control techniques are often applied to
power plants, namely by tuning against set point
changes. In fact, not only tuning based on set point
changes, but also can generate 2 proper responses. But
tuning based on disturbance values is also appropriate
to use. In the previous study conducted by Moamar
Arief, with the title "Designing Level Control System
Using Internal Method Model Control Based PID On
Deaerator" has been done power plant control. That
aims to generate responds that match the set point,
and reduce the level of disruption that goes into the
process. However, this is only applied to the plant
daerator unit. Therefore, in this final task will be
designed a level control using Internal Model Control
(IMC) PID On Demin Water Tank (MWT)[2].
II. METHOD
In this study, the first step of Demin Water Tank
data retrieval includes the process of entering and
exiting demin water tank. The data obtained will be
used as a reference in conducting simulations using
hysys software. Then the modeling of the steady state
system.
Dynamic state condition is a simulation with
changing time conditions or in other words real time
to approach the real plant. Dynamic State modeling is
done by changing the modeling of steady State
condition to dynamic condition Dynamic state
modeling is done to test the operation of the system in
real time to approach the real plant conditions.
 set. This test is performed by giving variations on
setpoint values.
In plant modeling using FOPDT (First Order Plus
Dead Time) approach, what must be done is a control Fig 1. Block Diagram Close Loop
test on open loop conditions. Open loop testing is
performed to find the transfer function of the process. III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Tests are simulated over a certain period of time in Modeling is focused on Demin Water Tank with a
real time in order to represent the achievement of a component approach in the form of Tanks. Demin
steady condition after a change. Water Tank modelling shown in the image:
After obtaining the graph of the response of the
open loop condition on the control, the analysis was
conducted by determining the parameters below
which are then used to determine the FOPDT K, τ,
and θ parameters using the Cecil L. Smith equation as
follows:
∆
K= (1)
δ Fig 2. Modeling Steady State deaerator on HYSYS

τ =1,5 ( t 63 % −t 28 % ) After selecting the use of components to be modeled,

(2)
enter the parameter value in the form of specification
θ=t 63 % −τ (3) and operational data as input, so that the output value
of the steady state modeling, as in the following table:
information:
Table 2. Steady State Demin Water Tank
K : Gain steady state Modeling Data
Δ : Magnitude of external variable changes Input
δ : The amount of change in the insert variable that
affects the external variable
t 63% : Output response time when it reaches 63%
t 28% : Output response time when it reaches 28%
τ : Time constant
θ : Dead Time
After calculating the FOPDT parameter, then continue
filling in the IMC tuning parameter field. So that the
IMC PID tuning parameters are obtained as below
table
Table 1. Parameter IMC PID
Parameter IMC PID Output

Kc Ti Td Symbo Uni Valu %Erro

l t e HYSYS r
97.2 35 0
Twout C 50.00 50 0.00
Control tests on Close Loop conditions are Pwout KPa 101.3 101.3 0.00
performed by changing the setpoint value. This is
8000
done with the aim of knowing the performance of
mwout kg/h 0 80000 0.00
control in responding to setpoint changes. The
setpoint test is intended to determine how long the Twc C 50 50 0.00
process variable will take to reach the setpoint value
Pwc kPa 100.3 100.3 0.00
8000
mwc kg/h 0 80000 0.00
 Sym U Val HYS %Er Fig 3. Dynamic mode Simulation Result Graph (a)
bol nit ue YS ror Input (b) Output
Tcv C 50 50 0.00
K 10 IV. CONCLUSION
Pcv pa 2.30 102.3 0.00 Based on the analysis that has been done can be
kg 800 8000 drawn conclusions as follows:
mcv /h 00 0 0.00 1. Modeling and validation of steady state
Tw C 50 50 0.00 modeling data is done with field operational
data.
kP 101
Pw a .3 101.3 0.00 2. Validation of steady statemodlan data can be
said to have excellent results, because the
kg 800 8000 error value is 0%\
mw /h 00 0 0.00

REFERENCE
[1] Nurmiati Pasra, Faisol Hakim.
From the table above known Input and output values "Pengoperasian Water Treatment Plant di PT
PJB Unit Pembangkitan Paiton", 2015.

do not occur differences in value and generate error

values 0%, because the output value in the modeling
is used as a reference to be able to produce input
values.
Then continued with dynamic state modeling has
variable values that change to time also takes into
account the accumulation of mass and energy pasa
system that makes simulation in this condition takes
time to achieve a stable state. In the picture shown the
results of modeling simulation in dynamic conditions.
(a)
(b)