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Real Time Industrial Process Systems: Experiences from the Field

2009; Elsevier BV; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s1570-7946(09)70243-3

2543-1331

Carlos Ruiz,

Advanced Control Systems Optimization

Abstract Over a period of more than 20 years of experience, deploying industrial projects related to advanced process control and real time optimization in processing industries around the world, many times the following or similar issues have been found: • A lot of applications of Process Systems Engineering related technologies are extremely successful when used offline by Engineers, in their offices, but only a few of them succeed when transferred to the Operators to be routinely used in real time, tied to online field data, under unsupervised automatic execution. • The use of certain technologies, deployed under well engineered, successful real time projects, received enthusiastically by Engineers and Operators are not used more than for just a few months after the project completion. • Real time systems with pretty good up-time figures degrade and finally unused when the Engineer in charge of them is promoted to a new position as a consequence of being so successful with them. • Very well proven, sound technologies, fail when applied at a given Site while they succeed in a different location owned by the same Company. • After a failure with one advanced technology, the Site or the Company becomes “immunized” against similar technologies and only after several years, with the renewal of the Engineering staff and young blood that has not been exposed to the past failure, does the technology have a chance to be considered again. This paper will address some of the root causes for those issues and discuss about the best practices on how to avoid project failures. The range of projects from where experience was acquired range from individual pieces of equipment and isolated Units to whole Areas or Site wide systems (for example, the utilities system comprising the steam, fuels, boiler feed water and electricity networks). All of them were simulated, optimized and/or controlled with real time, online, industrially well established technologies. Main industrial project steps are explained and critical details to be taken into account when dealing with real time data and online automatic executions. The objective is to help achieve a successful technology deployment avoiding project pitfalls and ensuring the continuous use of the applications based on the proper technology transfer and maintenance.