Optimal operation and control of chemical plants with natural gas feedstock

The GASSMAKS program deals with conversion and use of natural gas to polymer feedstocks, polymers (plastics), synthetic fuels, energy processes, carbon materials, metallurgical processes and proteins and fat. Most such plants have a long life span (in the excess of 30 years), making optimal and flexible operation and control vital for the overall profitability. In addition, most processes have individual units, for example reactors, where good control is required for being able to operate the plant proper ly. Optimal operation and plantwide control of chemical plants has a long history (e.g. Buckley, 1964) , but the in the academic community emphasis has been on mathematical methods, rather on the structural issues (which are usually more important in pr actice): What should be controlled? What should be manipulated? What should be measured? How should these variables sets be linked? Based on insights in distillation, our group started working in this area in the mid 1990s, and some of these results as we ll as other results were summarized in the journal paper by Skogestad (2004 ) which received a prize for the best paper in Computers and Chemical Engineering. In this project, the aim is to extend the plantwide control procedure of Skogestad (2004) and to apply it to specific processes related to the GASSMAKS research program.