Basic Process Engineering Control

Paul Serban Agachi, Mircea Vasile Cristea

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9783110377019
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Chemical & Biochemical Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Basic Process Engineering Control is based on the extensive experience of the
authors in the field of industry, teaching and writing. The textbook showcases
methods, problems, and tools used in this well-established fi eld of chemical engineering and goes beyond traditional process engineering by applying the same principles to biomedical processes, energy production, and management of environmental issues. Starting from the behavior of processes, Basic Process Engineering Control explains all determinations in "chemical systems" or "process systems", such as the intricate inter dependency of the process stages, analyzing the hardware components of a control system, and the design of an appropriate control system for a process parameter or a whole process. Although mainly aimed at students and graduates, the book is equally interesting to chemical or process engineers in all industries or research and development centers. Readers will notice the similarity in approach from the system and control point of view between different fields, which might otherwise seem far from each other but share the same control philosophy.

Part I: Introduction

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1 History of process control

As one may see, the development of process control is strongly related to manufacturing processes. These roots are traced to the ancient times of humanity, starting with metal, fabric and pottery production. Industrial manufacturing and actually engineering were innovations of the XVIII^th century, during the Industrial Revolution. The population increased during this century, being inclined to consume more and better. This consumerism led to an escalation in demand, both with regard to quantity and quality, for food, clothing, footwear, housing, transportation, which stimulated the production of construction materials, textiles, chemicals etc. Each global conflict, after its end (e.g. First and Second World Wars), induced the same behavior and the same reaction on behalf of society and production companies. Production became mass production with huge quantities of products delivered at deadlines and with a certain quality expectation. Mass production, under these circumstances, could no longer be controlled manually because of the expectations. In the meantime, in the second half of the XX^th century, the environment became important, a fact which imposed environmental constraints on the manufacturers. On top on that, the globalization of the economy amplified the competition among world companies and only those capable of reducing costs and respecting the environment remained on the market. Together with these facts, an important impact on the development of technology and especially computing facilities was caused by the Cold War and the space race between the major world powers: the USA and the USSR. All these sequences led to a tremendous development of control equipment and techniques as a part of process control development. Process control was seen as a major tool for development and complying with the constraints.

Milestones in the modern history of control are C. Drebbel’s contribution in inventing the first temperature control device for a furnace, around 1624, D. Papin’s invention of the first safety valve for his steam engine – a pressure regulator – in 1704, E. Lee’s first controlled positioning system for a windmill in 1745 ^[1],[2] (Fig. 1.1), T. Polzunov’s first level controller for his steam engine (1765), J. Watt’s fly ball governor in 1768 ^[3],[4] –a speed regulator for his rotary steam engine – (Fig. 1.2). The first obviously advanced combination between process engineering and process control was H. Jacquard’s loom in 1801 (Fig. 1.3) which stored the model of the silk fabric on punch cards ^[5],[6]. Actually, in that period in France there were several looms having similar control systems.

The first publication in the field of control systems was elaborated by J. C. Maxwell in 1868 and approached a theoretical analysis of the stability of Watt’s fly ball governor (1868) [3]. The n...