Sudan University of Sciences and

Technology
College of Engineering and Technology of
Industries
Department of Chemical Engineering

Process measurement
& Control II
Lecture 2

Lecturer: Arafa Ali 1

 Introduction to Feedback
Control
Consider a chemical process
plant shown in Figure below.
It has an output y that needs to
be maintained at a desired
setpoint ysp .
The process is subjected to 2
One input is available in the process
that can be manipulated in order to
steer the process to its desired set
point .
Hence, in the event of process
disturbance drifting the process output
away from its desired setpoint, the
objective of feedback control is to steer
the process output at its setpoint by
manipulating the process input.
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conceptual block diagram of feedback control
loop of a chemical process

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A feedback control law consists of
the following steps of action:
Measurement of process output y ,
such as pressure, temperature,
flow, level, composition, using a
suitable measuring device.
Comparison of process output and
its desired setpoint ysp and
calculation of the deviation error
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 Feeding the value of deviation
error to the controller, which
calculates the appropriate
control action(c) to be taken.
 Feeding the value of the
control action to the final
control element, that translates
the control action into
manipulated form of process 6
Symbol used

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The figure below demonstrates
some typical feedback control
systems which are often
encountered in a chemical process
plant.
This is an example of a distillation
column.
There are six control loops in this
example, one each for pressure, 11
The measurements are done through
an appropriate measuring device cum
transmitter (denoted by PT, TT, FT,
LT, RT and CT).
The measured output is compared with
the respective setpoints (denoted by
Psp , Tsp , Fsp , Lsp , Rsp and Csp)
 errors are fed to the respective
controllers (denoted by PC, TC, FC,
LC , RC and CC) and control actions
are subsequently initiated by their12
Fig4: Schematic of a typical feedback control configuration of a distillation column

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The feed is pumped into the
column whose flow rate and
composition are controlled.
Feed mainly comes through a
major supply line where the
feed composition may vary due
to various factors which are
beyond the scope of the
operator of the distillation14
An auxiliary supply line with
guaranteed purity of material
can be mixed with the main
supply through a regulated dose
in order to maintain the
composition of the feed entering
the column.

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A flow controller at the entry point of the
column maintains the feed flow rate.

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The pressure of the top section
of the column is maintained by
regulating the flow of vapour
going out of the column.

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 The vapour is condensed and collected in a
tank. The outlet temperature of distillate
coming out the condenser (heat exchanger)
is controlled by regulating the flow rate of
cooling water used in the heat exchanger.

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The liquid level inside the
storage tank in the downstream
of condenser is controlled with
a level controller by regulating
the tank outlet.

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The L/D ratio of a distillation
column is very important and it
needs to be controlled by a ratio
controller.
The ratio transmitter is essentially
a flow measuring device that
sends the ratio of the two flow
rates rather than the flow rates
themselves.
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In all the above examples, only one
type of final control element has been
demonstrated .
control valve. Nevertheless, there are
various other final control elements
available such as variable speed
metering pump, heating regulators etc.

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The above example indicates that the
basic hardware components of a
feedback control configuration are
the following:
Process
Measuring devices
Transmission lines
Controllers
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Process
Any equipment that serves the
targeted physical/chemical
operation of the plant is termed as
a process. Reactors, separators,
exchangers, pressure vessels, tanks,
etc. are examples of a process.
Typically these processes are
connected in a logical fashion and
the output of one process becomes 25
Any disturbance/malfunction of one
process may affect other processes in
the downstream side (and upstream
too, in case recycle streams are used).
Process variables are primarily
pressure, temperature, flow rate, level,
composition, etc .
From the process control perspective,
it is crucial to study how the changes in
one process variable affect the other, so
that an educated measure of control 26
Measuring Instruments or Sensors
The success of any feedback
control operation depends largely
on accurate measurement of
process variables through
appropriate sensors.
There are a large number of
commercial sensors available in the
market. They differ in their
measuring principle(s) and/or their
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Controllers
A controller is basically a
mathematical function block that
reads the error between desired set
point and the measured output and
then computes the corrective action
for the manipulated input that
would steer process towards the
desired setpoint.
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There are two basic types of feedback
controllers which are widely used in the
industry.
 On-off control or two position control
Continuous control action
There are three basic types of continuous
feedback controllers which are widely
used in the industry.
 Proportional (P) controller
Proportional Integral (PI) controller 35