Emerson Exchange 365

Implementing advanced process control (APC) is never a simple exercise. Engineers at the Croatian oil and gas company INA have found a way to take some of the pain out of the process, however, by using the simulation capabilities of Emerson’s Operator Training Solution (OTS) to pretest the effectiveness of a new APC design for one of their hydrocracking units.

“The hydrocracker APC is part of a broader optimization strategy to improve process control and energy efficiency at our Rijeka plant,” said INA process automation engineer Boris Žeželj, who discussed the project as a case study this week at the 2014 Emerson Global Users Exchange in Stuttgart, Germany.

“Our goal was to minimize control loop and product properties variability on the unit while maximizing diesel production. We also saw an opportunity to get more out of our existing OTS and train our operators for the new APC at the same time. To accomplish this, we asked Emerson to conduct a detailed analysis of historical process data and estimate the expected benefits of implementing APC on the hydrocracker.”

“Based on the results of this analysis, we realized there was an opportunity to achieve impressive benefits by developing APC on our hydrocracker unit,” Žeželj continued. “As there are OTS upgrade projects currently in execution, Emerson recommended a smaller application of APC using OTS. Emerson also recommended an integrated solution using the native DeltaV^TM process automation system OTS. The APC control algorithms and modifications to the regulatory controls and operator displays were developed entirely in the OTS environment with no additional hardware or software.”

The DeltaV Simulate Standalone^TM application was used to test APC control strategies with no OPC server interface required. The simulator program used the same operator graphics used by the on-line system, and allowed operators to execute the process in faster or slower speeds than real time to assist in design evaluation.

“This approach has helped us move more smoothly through the development phase for APC application on the real hydrocracker unit and use all of the benefits of an integrated system,” Žeželj explained. “Having successfully implemented APC on the hydrocracker unit at the Rijeka plant, INA expects to see added profitability of around $1.5 million each year.”