Process Control of Chemical Engineering Operations in Oil & Gas Industry

Course Content:

Unit 1: Introduction to Chemical Engineering Controls:

• Overview of chemical engineering process control background
• The objectives of control
• Definitions & terminology
• Design methodology for process control
• Failures in process control; case studies of three major disasters
  • Bhopal case
  • Three Mile Island case
  • Texas city case
• Current significance:
  • Introduction
  • Automation
• Introduction to distributed control system (DCS):
  • Control system hardware

Unit 2: Modeling Basics:

• Verbal modeling:
  • Process description
  • Control specifications
  • Connections
  • Prerequisite information regarding a process
  • Step-by-step method for describing controls and their purpose
  • Alternative method of verbal modeling
  • The Barkel method of verbal modeling
• Degrees of freedom:
  • Importance
  • Calculation procedure
  • Applications
•  Incidence graphs:
  • Introduction
  • Monotonicity
  • Consistent graphs
  • Inconsistent graphs
  • Partially consistent graphs
  • Sensors & Actuators
• Measurement devices:
  • Industrial applications
  • Temperature control: thermocouples
  • Pressure control: pressure switch
  • Composition control: ratio control
  • Level control: level switches
  • Flow control: flow meres
• Temperature sensors:
  • Thermometers
  • Residence temperature detectors
  • Thermocouples
  • Pyrometers
• Temperature regulators:
  • Regulator structure
  • Regulator operation
  • Types of temperature regulators
  • Resistance temperature detectors
• Pressure sensors:
  • Sensor selection criteria
  • Process
  • Environment
  • Pressure range
  • Sensitivity
• Pressure measuring methods:
  • Height of liquid methods
  • Elastic distortion
  • Electrical methods
• Types of sensors:
  • Elastic sensors
  • Electric sensors
  • Differential pressure cells
  • Vacuum sensors
• Semi-batch reactor problem:
  • Shutdown point
  • Types of semi-batch reactor sensors
• Level sensors:
  • Visual level sensors
  • Common uses
  • Benefits of visual level sensors
  • Restrictions
  • Sight tube indicators
  • Float type level sensors
  • Buoyancy types
  • Static types
  • Formulas
  • Valve-based level sensors
• Electrical level sensors:
  • Conductive level sensing
  • Capacitance level sensing
  • Radiation-based level sensors
  • Flow sensors
  • Ultrasonic flow meters

Unit 3:Mathematics for Control Systems

• Measurement devices:
  • Dirac delta
  • First-order differential equations
  • Second-order differential equations
  • Optimization

• Unit 4:Optimization:

  • Definition
  • Engineering application
  • Optimization across an organization
  • Optimization design
  • Constraints
  • Optimization situations
  • Real-time optimization
  • Industry experience
  • Pilot plant experience
• Linear optimization:
  • Introduction
  • characteristics
• Non-linear optimization:
  • Introduction
  • Quadratic optimization
  • Iterative methods
  • Applications