Engineering processes, operating units, and equipment are designed with clear objectives and usually operated under well-controlled circumstances as designed. However, for emerging situations that are not factored into the design, data become indispensable assets in decision-making for safe and efficient operations. In the September AIChE Journal Perspective article, “Process Data Analytics in the Era of Big Data,” S. Joe Qin, who is on leave from the Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles to work at the Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, demonstrates how data have been effectively used in process operations and control. He also provides new perspectives on how chemical process systems might evolve to a new paradigm of data-enhanced operations and control.
