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PP-301 S.No. Course Learning Outcome s(CLOs) Taxonomy

Level
PLO

PROCESS CONTROL & 1.

DESCRIBE fundamentals of loop controllers and digital controllers,
elements of measuring systems and their functions.
C2
Engineering
Knowledge

INSTRUMENTATION 2.
ILLUSTRATE ideas related to different system responses and able to
CARRY OUT different system stability criteria. C3
Problem
Analysis

ILLUSTRATE ideas related to different system responses and able to Design/Develo

Course Teacher : Nabiha Syed 3. CARRY OUT different system stability criteria. C3 pment of
Email : nabihasyed@neduet.edu.pk Solutions

BOOKS:

1. Chemical Process Control by George Stephanopolous

Assessment Type Marks Schedule (Week No.)
2. Principles and Practice of Automatic Process Control by Carl & A.Smith
Quiz 10 4,13
(2nd Edition)
Mid Term 20 8
3. Process Control by Thomas E. Marlin
Assignment 10 10,14

Total Sessional Marks 40

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Incentives for Chemical Process Control

LECTURE 1 • What is a chemical plant?

An arrangement of processing units integrated
with one another

• What is a plant’s overall objective?

convert raw materials into desired products with
available sources in most economical way

• A chemical plant must satisfy few requirements during its operation,

such as All of the requirements listed previously dictate

1. Safety the need for continuous monitoring of the operation of a chemical

2. Production specifications plant and external intervention to guarantee the satisfaction of the
operational objectives
3. Environmental regulations
4. Operational constraints
5. Economics Can be achieved by rational arrangement of equipment
(measuring devices, valves, controllers, computers) and human
And so on.. intervention (plant designers, plant operators) which together
make a control system.

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WHY IS CONTROL NECESSARY?

- The first reason for control is to maintain the temperature at its desired value
Two major reasons; when disturbances occur. Some typical disturbances for this process occur in
the following variables: inlet process fluid flow rate and temperature, heating
fluid temperature, and pressure of the heating fluid upstream of the valve.
Lets consider an example of CSTR in which temperature is to be maintained

- The second reason for control is to respond to changes in the desired value.
For example, if the desired temperature in the stirred-tank heat exchanger is
increased, the heating valve percent opening would be increased. The desired
values are based on a thorough analysis of the plant operation and objectives.

Features Of A Control System?

• The first is that each uses a specific value (or range) as a desired value for the
controlled variable. When we cover control calculations, we will use the term
set point for the desired value.

• Second, the conditions of the system are measured; that is, all control systems
use sensors to measure the physical variables that are to be maintained near
their desired values.

• Third, each system has a control calculation, or algorithm, which uses the
measured and the desired values to determine a correction to the process
operation. Schematic diagram of a general feedback control system showing the
sensor, control calculation based on a desired vale and final element

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WHY IS A CONTROL POSSIBLE? - Sensors using various physical principles are available for the basic
process variables (flow, temperature, pressure, and level), compositions
(e.g., mole fraction) and physical properties (e.g., density, viscosity, heat of
- The proper design of plant equipment is essential for control to be possible
combustion).
and for control to provide good dynamic performance. Therefore, the control
and dynamic operation is an important factor in plant design.
- The final control elements in chemical processes are usually valves that
affect fluid flows, but they could be other manipulated variables, such as
- Based on the key features of feedback control the plant design must include
power to an electric motor or speed of a conveyor belt.
adequate sensors of plant output variables and appropriate final control
elements.
- Another important consideration is the capacity of the process equipment.
The equipment must have a large enough maximum capacity to respond to
- The sensors must respond rapidly so that the control action can be taken in
all expected disturbances and changes in desired values.
real time.

HOW IS CONTROL DONE?

- Most feedback control is automated, which requires that the key functions
of sensing, calculating, and manipulating be performed by equipment
and that each element communicate with other elements in the control "How is control done?" is simply, "Automatically, using
system. instrumentation and computation that perform all features of
feedback control without requiring (but allowing) human
intervention."
- Currently, most automatic control is implemented using electronic
equipment, which uses levels of current or voltage to represent values to be
communicated.

- In some cases control systems use pneumatic, hydraulic, or mechanical

mechanisms to calculate and communicate; in these systems, the signals
are represented by pressure or physical position.

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WHERE IS CONTROL IMPLEMENTED?

 Documentation
- Chemical plants are physically large and complex. The people responsible for operating the
plant on a minute-to-minute basis must have information from much of the plant available to
them at a central location. Some of the more common designations are the following:

• A Analyzer (specific analysis is often indicated next to the symbol, for

example, ⍴ (for density) or pH)
• F Flow rate
• L Level of liquid or solids in a vessel
• P Pressure
• T Temperature
 Sensors, local indicators, and valves are in the process.
 Displays of all plant variables and control calculations are in a centralized facility.

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- Note that the symbol does not indicate the physical principle used by the DESIGN ELEMENTS OF A CONTROL SYSTEM
sensor.

1. Define control objective

- For controllers, the communication to the final element is shown as a
dashed line when it is electrical, which is the mode communication 2. Select measurements
considered in designs for most of this book. 3. Select manipulated variable
4. Control Configuration
5. Design the controller

DESIGN ASPECTS OF A PROCESS CONTROL SYSTEM

Classification of the variables in a chemical process • Input variables can further be classified into following categories:

Variables associated with a chemical process are divided into two 1. Manipulated (or adjustable) variables: if values can be
groups adjusted freely by operator or a controller
i) Input Variables: denotes the effect of the surrounding on the
chemical process
2. Disturbances: if values are not the result of an adjustment by an
ii) Output Variables: denoted the effect of the process on the
operator or a control system
surroundings

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External disturbances

Measured (d) Unmeasured (d’)

• Output variables are also classified into the following categories:

Manipulated
1. Measured output variables: if values are known by directly variables (m) Processing System
Measured
Outputs (y)
measuring them

2. Unmeasured output variables: if they are not or cannot be

measured directly Unmeasured Outputs (z)

1. Feedback Control Configuration

DESIGN ELEMENTS OF A CONTROL SYSTEM disturbances

4. Control Configuration Manipulated

variables Measured
Process Outputs
(Controlled
A control configuration is the information structure that is used to
variables)
connect the available measurements to the available manipulated
variables Unmeasured
outputs

Controller
Set Points

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2) Inferential Control Configuration Inferential Control Configuration

disturbances

Uses secondary measurements (as the controlled variables cannot be

measured) to adjust the values of the manipulated variables Manipulated
variables Measured
Process Outputs
- Objective is to keep the controlled variables at the desired levels.

Unmeasured outputs
- Estimator uses the values of the available measured outputs, together with (controlled variables)
EB and MB, to compute mathematically the values of the MV.
Set
Points
Estimator: computes an estimate
- Estimates are used by controller to manipulate the variables. Controller of the values of the unmeasured
controlled variables

Estimates of the unmeasured

controlled variables

3. Feed forward Control Configuration DESIGN ELEMENTS OF A CONTROL SYSTEM

v) Design the controller
disturbances
• Controller is the active element that receives the information from the
Controller measurements and takes appropriate control actions.
• It adjusts the manipulated variables.
Manipulated
variables Measured
Process Outputs
How is the information taken from the measurements, used to adjust the
values of the manipulated variables?
Unmeasured The control law, implemented automatically by the controller.
outputs

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 IMPORTANCE OF CONTROL ENGINEERING

Example 1:

Control performance depends on process and control equipment design. The

plant section in Figure a and b includes different designs for a packed-bed
chemical reactor and two distillation towers. The feed to the plant section
experiences composition variation, which results in variation in the product
composition, which should be maintained as constant as possible.

Figure (a) Example of a process design difficult to control & Figure (b) is an example
easier to control

Example 1.1
Consider the tank heater system as shown in figure 1.2. A liquid enters the
𝒇𝒕𝟑
tank with a flow rate F1 (𝒎𝒊𝒏 ) and a temperature T1 (℉), where it is heated with
steam (having flow rate Fst ( lb/min). Let F and T be the flow rate and
temperature of the stream leaving the tank. The tank is considered to be well
stirred, which implies that the temperature of the effluent is equal to the
temperature of the liquid in the tank.

Operational objectives of this system are:

i) To keep effluent temperature T at a desired value Ts
ii) To keep the volume of the tank at a desired value Vs

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Example 2.10 Cooling water

Example 2.10
Reflux Condenser
Distillates
Consider a distillation column separating a binary mixture of pentane
(distillate) and hexane (bottoms). Our control objective is to maintain
the production of a distillate stream with 95 mole% pentane in the Feed
presence of changes in the feed composition.

Column

Steam
Reboiler

Bottoms

Possible solution 1
Possible solution 2

Feed back control Feed forward control

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HARDWARE FOR A PROCESSS CONTROL SYSTEM

Possible solution 3
Hardware Elements of a Control System

Inferential Control
1. The Chemical Process
Represents the material equipment together with the chemical or physical
operations.

2. The measuring instruments or sensors 3. Transducers

- Used to measure the disturbances, controlled output variables or secondary - Used to convert measurements into physical quantities.
output variables.

- Example: electrical current or voltage, pneumatic signal.

- Main source of information.

- Such as strain gauges are metallic conductors whose electrical resistances

- Examples: changes when they are subjected to mechanical strain.
i) Temperature : thermocouples, resisting thermometers
ii) Flow rate: venturi meters, rotameters - Can be used to convert pressure signal to an electrical one
iii) Gas chromatograph: stream composition

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4. Transmission Lines 6. The final control element

- They carry the electrical signal. - Implements the decisions taken by the controller.

- The control valve is the most frequently used final control element.
- Amplifiers are some times used to to enhance weak electrical signals.
- Other typical examples for a chemical process are relay switches, variable
5. The controller speed pumps, variable speed compressors.

- It has the intelligence. 7. Recording element

- Provides a visual demonstration of how a chemical process behaves.

- Receives the information from the measuring devices and decides what
action should be taken.
- Various types of recorders can be seen in the control room of a chemical plant.

Hardware elements for the FB control of a CSTR

PROBLEMS
1) Describe the steps that you would go through in designing a control
system for maintaining the pH of the liquid in the stirred tank at a
desired value as shown in figure 1? Develop both feedback and feed
Temperature Liquid-Level forward control configurations.
Recorder Fi, Ti Recorder

Acidic solution NaOH solution

Thermocouple

Desired Ts
DPC
Tank

Solution with
Controller Controller desired pH

Transmission Control
Figure 1
Control
Lines Valve
Valve

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3) Two liquid streams with flow rates 𝑭𝟏 and 𝑭𝟐 and Temperature 𝑻𝟏 and
2) 𝑻𝟐 flow through two separate pipes which converge at a mixing junction
2) Consider the heat exchanger as shown in figure. as shown in figure 2. We want to maintain constant flow rate 𝑭𝟑 and the
Identify: temperature 𝑻𝟑 of the liquid stream resulting from the mixing of the first
a) Control Objective two streams.
b) External disturbances
c) Available Manipulated variables a) Identify the control objectives, disturbances, available manipulated
variables. Is this a SISO or MIMO system?
b) Develop a feedback control system
Figure PI.1
c) Develop a feed forward control system
d) Develop two control systems that uses both
feed forward and feedback controllers

Figure 2

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