Real-Time Approach Process Control

A hands-on teaching and reference text for chemical engineers In writing this book the authors' have focused exclusively on the vast majority of chemical engineering students who need a basic understanding of practical process control for their industrial careers. Traditionally process control has been taught using non-intuitive and highly mathematical techniques (Laplace and frequency-domain techniques). Aside from being difficult to master in a one-semester course, the traditional approach is of limited use for more complex process control problems encountered in the chemical processing industries. When designing and analyzing multi-loop control systems today, industry practitioners employ both steady-state and dynamic simulation-based methodologies. These 'real time' methods have now all but replaced the traditional approach. A Real Time Approach to Process Control provides the student with both a theoretical and practical introduction to this increasingly important approach. Assuming no prior knowledge of the subject, this text introduces all of the applied fundamentals of process control from instrumentation to process dynamics, PID loops and tuning, to distillation, multi-loop and plant-wide control. In addition, students come away with a working knowledge of the three most popular dynamic simulation packages. The text carefully balances theory and practice by offering students readings and lecture materials along with hands-on workshops that provide a 'virtual' process on which to experiment and from which to learn modern, real time control strategy development.