Performance with process control
About Us
Year of foundation: 2022
We offer deep knowledge about process control, automation and higher level real-time optimization to the process industries.
Bottom line: Improved process control => More production, less energy consumption, reduced environmental impact, improved performance => improved bottom line.
Simplicity in action: This can in many cases be achieved with simple control solutions and sometimes even with small changes to operating practices.
We have more than 80 years of working experience of automation, process control, advanced process control and real-time optimization within the chemicals, petroleum refining, petrochemicals and energy industries.
Our mission is to apply the broad spectrum of process control technologies to guide our Clients to a maximized bottom line number.
Services
Assessments and studies
What kind of operational changes are recommended, what are the needs to re-tune existing control loops in the current control system, APC (Advanced Process Control) needs, RTO (Real-time Optimization) needs and initial benefit estimates of these all.
Process control improvement
Tuning of existing control loops at Client’s site or as a remote service.
Conceptual design of required modifications to existing control loops and Client support during implementation, and optionally tuning of modified control loops
Advanced Process Control (APC) Study
Control strategy description, description of required modifications in the control system, description of optimizing features, and updated benefit estimate.
Real-time Optimization (RTO) Study
Optimization strategy, benefit/cost function definitions, description of required modifications on APC and control system levels, and updated benefit estimate.
Energy efficiency audits
We support energy efficiency improvement projects by studying how process control – tuned or modified – or APC, can improve energy efficiency.
Training services
Training can be related to all services above or we can provide training on both the basics and advanced features of process control:
- How to estimate impact of improved process control on performance and bottom line
- Recap on control algorithms and methods
- Understanding process behavior and basics of process modeling
- Control tuning
- Case examples on bottom line improvements by process control
- Exercises, optionally related to Client’s process
Frequently Asked Questions
How can control tuning improve performance?
When the process suffers from fluctuations, it must be operated far away from the allowed limits. Control tuning decreases the fluctuations, and after that you can operate closer to the limits which means improved performance.
Can you really achieve better performance by just changing how to operate?
Yes. Take for instance feed rate maximization of a process unit. Usually operations happen within a convenience region, so you can increase the feed rate with small steps while observing the process behavior. The observations are written down to provide an operations manual. Often you can increase the feed rate even further with APC.
Conclude control improvement needs from data
This done by collecting data from the process and analyzing it. A control loop can for instance manipulate a process variable (such as flow rate) which does not have a large enough impact on the variable to be controlled, in which case the control structure must be changed. Also, two control loops may interact with each other in a harmful way, in which case calculation blocks are added into the control system providing de-coupling.
Control Systems are underutilized
Modern distributed control systems are very capable and contain versatile functions. Actually, you may state that they are underutilized in typical process plants. However, in some cases it is beneficial to implement APC.
APC and MPC
APC alias Advanced Process Control usually refers to model-predictive control (MPC) which is used on a routine basis in many industries. MPC provides accurate control and performance improvement in complex process plants with demanding behavior where the control loops in the control system are not good enough. APC is a broader concept than MPC because it contains also fuzzy control, automatic process diagnostics and other advanced control technologies.
Control Strategy Based on Engineering Data
From the engineering data such as material- and energy balances together with process flow diagrams the controllability can be concluded by referring to control methods which work based on experience.
Energy Optimization and Control
There are many examples: Minimization of pressure in a distillation column leads to less energy consumption in the reboiler; Maximization of the liquid level in the feed tank of a pump in order to provide less energy consumption of the pump; …
Real-time optimization
Real-time optimization (RTO) is a complex software package which hierarchically sits on top of APC and the control system and sends control commands to them. RTO often uses complex mathematical models of the process and it can in real time solve how the process can be run as economically as possible. The targets of RTO are expressed in monetary terms – maximize benefit or minimize costs – whereas the targets of APC are expressed in engineering units (temperature, pressure, flow rate,…). RTO can encompass several process units with their own APC’s.
Benefit and Cost
The benefit function for a certain process unit or plant may consist of for instance the flow rates and prices of the products and which is intended to be maximized. The cost function may consist of the energy consumption together with the raw material flow rates and their prices. The final benefit function is obtained by subtracting the cost from the benefit. If it is important to only minimize the cost, the benefit part may be left away.
MPC also does optimization
Actually MPC is an optimization algorithm where the differences between controlled variables (process temperatures, pressures, product qualities,…) and their target values are minimized. Another optimization task can easily be added to this optimization, for instance minimization of energy consumption. This MPC-based optimization covers only the part of the process which it controls, while RTO looks at the big picture and optimizes over multiple process units and their APC’s.
Simple and Effective Process Control Solutions
We always strive towards a control solution which is as simple as possible but which works and improves performance. We also provide review and second-eye opinion services for process control solutions.
Choosing the Right Control Method
Probably there exists a more appropriate solution from the large selection of traditional methods. If your process plant is very large and complex, the control solution might partially be based on AI. It is worth to notice, that some market actors call their solutions AI-based in spite of that they in reality are based on traditional algorithms.
Contact
Take Control Oy
Business ID: 3304002-5
Office: Helsinki, Finland
Hans Aalto
Principal Specialist, Owner
Antti Pelkola
Senior Specialist