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Computers and Chemical Engineering Supplement (1999) S747-S750

Pergamon e 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
PII: S0098· 1354/99/00200-8

Integrating Operating Procedure Synthesis

and Hazards Analysis Automation Tools for
Batch Processes
Shankar Viswanathan, Jinsong Zhao and Venkat Venkatsubramanian
Laboratory of Intelligent Process Systems, School of Chemical Engineering
Purdue University
Linas Mockus, Jonathan Vinson, Al Noren, Prabir K. Basu
Searle, a Monsanto Company, Skokie, IL
Abstract:

In this paper we address the problem of integrating two systems iTOPS, an InteIIigent Tool for Operating Procedure
Synthesis and BHE, BatchHAZOPexpert that are respective used for generating operator instructions and
performing process hazards analysis for batch processes. The architecture of the integrated system is described and
its application to an industrial case study is presented.

an operation like charge a reactor or heat a reactor. A

INTRODUCTION
Several activities need to be performed prior to start of
production in a batch processing facility. These include
operating procedure synthesis (OPS), process hazards
analysis (PHA), scheduling, and generation of batch
control code. OPS generates the sequence of operations
and their corresponding instructions, that an operator
performs to manage a batch process. PHA determines
the hazards that could occur when performing this
sequence of operations and devcIops safety
recommendations for the process based on this analysis.
Scheduling optimally aIIocates resources and equipment
for each operation in the sequence generated by OPS
and batch control code generation implements the
sequence in a procedural control system. All these
involve considerable amount of time, effort and
expertise from plant personnel which make automation
of these tasks very desirable and important. Significant
progress has been made recently in techniques and
software for automating each of these individual
functions.
Integration of these software tools is the next step in this
direction and wiII lead to use of consistent process and
plant information across these activities thereby
eliminating redundancy. In this research effort we
address the issues involved in integrating two software
tools geared towards OPS and PHA into one unified
system and present results of using such an integrated
system on a practical industrial case study.
SYSTEM FRAMEWORK AND ARCHITECTURE
A process-oriented approach is adopted in our
framework because, as specified in the S88 batch
standards, the information required for the various
functions such as OPS and PHA should be organized at
four process-based levels - phases, operations, unit
procedures. and procedure. Phases are activities such as
open valve, start agitator. etc. A set of phases makes up
group of operations constitute a unit procedure like
reaction or distiIIation and a set of unit procedures make
up a procedure. Two systems, InteIIigent Tool for
Operating Procedure Synthesis(iTOPS) (Viswanathan
et. al, 1998) and BatchHAZOPExpert (BHE)
(Srinivasan and Venkatasubramanian, 1998), that use
such a process-oriented approach, for modelling batch
process information. have been developed to automate
OPS and PHA respectively. The advantage of
integrating these two systems is that based on BHE's
PHA the operating procedures synthesized by iTOPS
can be reworked to incorporate the safety critical
information and appropriate recommendations into
them. To integrate iTOPS and BHE into one unified
system it is necessary to pursue two goals - resolve the
different "views" that underpin the models in the
individual techniques and provide user interface and
database support to allow for flow of information across
the two applications.
The basic framework for iTOPS uses grafchart-based
concepts to model the process at the four levels
identified in S88. It uses a hierarchical planning
technique to synthesize the operating procedures.
iTOPS starts with information about the process
materials, equipment, and chemistry to synthesize the
procedure, unit procedures, operations, and phases for
the process. The operating procedures are then
generated from the phases.
The basic framework for BHE uses a two-layered petri-
net (PN) based model of the process. The top layer
caIIed the recipe petri net includes information at the
level of unit procedures and the bottom level referred to
as the task petri net consists of information at the level
of operations. In addition to the two-layered process
model BHE also requires information about the process
materials, equipment, and chemistry. Using this process
information coupled with a signed digraph (SDG) based
S748 Computers and Chemical Engineering Supplem ent (1999) S747-S750
causal model BHE performs hazard and operability
(HAZOP) analysis .
In the integrated system it is envisioned that the user
inputs the information about the process - the materials.
the chemistry, and the equipment through the iTOPS
interface. iTOPS then uses this information to
synthesize the top three process levels - procedure, unit
procedures, and operations. The unit procedures and
operations are then converted through an interface from
a grafchart-based to a petri net-based representation to
be used in BHE. BHE then performs HAZOP using this
r--;::====;---,
IiTOPSKnowledge Bose I
Procedural
I ITOPSInterface I Knowledge
Gnfctw1 Procedures
fotUllitProC"cdum.,.
Dialog. menu-based, ~lioltJand
Plu>es
and grapbic3lcdllors
Process-SpeciflC
Dial0i:. nxnu ·bascd. KDO\~ik'dgl:
ond &Olphical cduo"
('rcnu MacerWJ.
EquipmellC. OwmU'J
Process-Generic ]
Know1cdge
r Sut:w.tDiiTlrt,J
I BHE Know1<dge Base I
Figure t: Architecture of Integrated System
information. Meanwhile iTOPS synthesizes the phases.
After BHE has performed HAZOP analysis and iTOPS
has synthesized the phases the details as to which
processing steps are safety critical are transferred from
BHE through the interface back to iTOPS. Safety
instructions corresponding to these are then created and
incorporated along with the basic instructions generated
by iTOPS in the final batch record document provided
to the operator.
The architecture of the integrated system that was
developed based on the above outlined concept is
shown in Figure 1. It has three parts:
• iTOPS components
• iTOPS-BHE interface
• BHE components
The iTOPS and BHE components each include an user
interface, a knowledge base, and an inference engine
The iTOPS user interface allows the user to edit the
declarative knowledge or the process specific
information which is stored in the iTOPS knowledge
base in an object-oriented fashion.The iTOPS inference
engine uses the declarative knowledge and the
procedural knowledge (modeled using grafchart
procedures) in a hierarchical planning strategy to
generate the unit procedures and operations. This
information is stored in the inferred knowledge
component of the iTOPS knowledge base.
At this stage the process information translator and the
product recipe generator in the iTOPS-BHE interface
are used to generate the process specific knowledge and
the product recipe information required by the BHE
knowledge base using the declarative knowledge and
the generated inferred knowledge in iTOPS.
Once the interface has completed the translation, iTOPS
and BHE complete their respective tasks. iTOPS
generates the phases and the nominal operating
I ;TOPSInforen« Engine I
In(cmd
ath Searrh
Equipment
Knowlc:dgc Assignmentand
Preliminary
Unil
Proctdurn(Block Sequencing
!'SD).
pPcnlionJ.{PSD).
~MOR).lnJ ( FtnalSequencing I
9Pcrnin,
PrOcedures Oper:uing
Procedure
Synrbcsls
Product Recipe
Information
~;r:::~~&
II BHE InferenceEngine I
procedures which is stored as part of iTOPS' inferred
knowledge.
BHE's inference engine determines the potential
hazards in the process, using the translated product
recipe information, process specific information, and
process generic subtask digraph models .
The integrated system was implemented in the G2
environment. The system architecture ensures that
consistent process information is used across the
applications while ensuring minimal intervention
between applications.
CASE STUDY
The integrated system was tested on 2 case studies
provided by Searle. The details of the how the system
was used to perform OPS and HAZOP for one of the
case studies is described below.
The process under consideration is an intermediate step
during manufacture of a drug. There are 8 materials and
5 process equipment that are involved in the process.
The chemistry of the process consists of a reaction
followed by filtration and drying steps. The
specification of the the material, equipment and
chemistry information in iTOPS is shown in Figure l.
The iTOPS inference engine based on the material,
equipment and chemistry information generates the
sequence of operations. also called the process sequence
 Computers and Chemical Engineering Supplement (1999) S747-S750 S749

diagram or PSD for the process. The PSD for this Currently we are developing a common model manager
particular case study, consisting of 29 operations is that links to external databases and provides the
shown in Figure 3. required process specific information to both iTOPS
and BHE.
The iTOPS-BHEinterface then utilises the generated
PSD to create the product recipe informationfor BHE. REFERENCES
The generation of the BHE product recipe information
Viswanathan, S., Johnsson, C., Srinivasan, R.,
based on the iTOPS PSD is shown in Figures 4 and 5.
Venkatasubrarnanian, V., and Arzen, K., (1998)
Once the iTOPS-BHE interface completes the Automatingoperating procedure synthesis for batch
translation iTOPS generates the operating procedures processes - II Implementation and Application,
also referred to as the Master Operations Record or Computers and Chemical Engineering. 22(11) 1686·
MOR. The MOR for this process is shown in Figure 6. 1698
The BHE system uses the translated process specific
Srinivasan,R., Venkatasubramanian, V.,Automating
and product recipe information to perform HAZOP
HAZOP analysis of batch chemical plants: Part II
analysis as shown in Figure 7.
Algorithms and Application, Computers and Chemical
CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK Engineering. 22(9) 1357- 1370
The basic.architectureof a system that performs OPS
and PHA for a batch process was presented and its use
in an industrial case study described. The system had
the advantage of ensuring use of consistent information
while preserving the primary structure of the individual
components.

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Figure 3: G:nerated PSD in iTa'S

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Figure4: GeneratedRecipePetri Net for BHEfromiTOPSPSD

5750 Computers and Chemical Engineering Supplement (/999) S747-S750

)(· 303

FigureS: Generating Task Petri Nets for BHE from iTOPS PSD

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figure 7: Perfcrming HAZOP in BHE

Figure6: Generating MORin ITOPS