(301ac) Implementation of an Experimental Platform for Chemical Process Integrated Operations

Process System Engineering (PSE) is concerned with the development of techniques and tools to address the generic manufacturing problems in design, operation and control for the process industries. The tasks in PSE, such as process design, modeling, optimization, control, scheduling, are correlative rather than alone. It should be considered in systemic approach. In this paper, an experimental platform is proposed and implemented for the purposes of education and research in the area of process operation integration. The integrated experimental platform integrates the main components in chemical process operation. The core of the experimental platform consists of five parts: processes equipments and simulators, control system, data acquisition and rectification, database, and advanced application, as shown in Figure 1. Process equipments and simulator are used as experimental objects. The control systems used are CENTUM-CS1000 and SIEMENS profibus. The data acquisition and rectification and the database work together to realize data exchange among the basic control systems and advanced applications. Opening Database Connection (ODBC) and Common Object Request Broker Agent (CORBA) are followed to realize communication among these software systems in the platform. The Standard for exchange of product data (STEP) is used for information integration. Advanced applications include process monitoring, fault diagnose, production planning and scheduling, safety evaluation, online optimization, and steady state simulation of process etc. To imitate the real industrial production process, the processes equipments were installed in the products and processes development laboratory, while the advanced application and teaching experiment are implemented in the system integration laboratory in another building. The distance between the two laboratories is about 600 meters. Signals of data and video are transmitted by special light fiber as well as campus network. There are a number of software systems included in the platform from different providers. They are G2, GAMS, MATLAB, ASPEN Plus/Dynamic, PRO/II, DATACON, LabWindows/CVI, gPROMS, and other developing tools. Opening Database Connection (ODBC) and Common Object Request Broker Agent (CORBA) are followed to realize communication among these software systems in the platform. Standard for exchange of product data (STEP) is used for information integration. Due to the characteristic of opening system structure, it is very easy to add new functions basing on the platform. Process simulation has been widely used in education. Process simulator is designed to represent the characteristic of the real plant productions, with necessary functions of the operation. Tennessee Eastman process simulator was developed by using C++Builder in the platform. Tennessee Eastman process is a typical chemical process found in the industry (Downs, 1993). There are 41 measurements, including 22 continuous process measurements and 19 composition measurements, and 12 manipulated variables.Besides the process simulator, a miniplant is used and connected to the platform as experimental object. The miniplant includes two batch reactor units, dosing, centrifuge, heating and cooling system, heat exchanger, vacuum pump using for negative pressure operation, and industrial control system operator station, as shown in Figure 4. In this miniplant, the raw material is pumped into the alternative reactor from the supply vessels. Flow rate of the feeding is controlled with dosing valves. The reactor unit consists of a 2 litre and a 10 litre jacked stirred reactors. They are used for batch and semi-batch chemical processes, such as reactions and crystallizations. When finishing reaction, the fluid product goes through the partial condenser and total condenser with heat exchange, and then flows into the product vessels. Meanwhile, the solid product is transported into the centrifuge from the reactor bottom valve. Crystal separation is operated in the centrifuge. The vacuum pump ensures negative pressure operation. There are 16 measurement variables and 7 control variables. This platform is currently used in process system engineering teaching activities in South China University of Technology. Up to now, 4 years of graduate students courses of ?simulation and optimization of chemical processes', and ?computer integrated process operations' are delivered based on this platform. Besides education and training, a series of research and development have been made based on this platform, such as process modeling and optimization, monitoring and fault diagnose, advanced control, production planning and scheduling. Furthermore, the WWW technology will be introduced in the platform to make the platform a virtual experimental environment on the campus so that faculties and researchers from different disciplines make maximum use of the platform.