Browsing by Author "Udugama, IA"

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item: Conference-Abstract
Achieving value from process intensification through better process control
(2019) Udugama, IA; Mansouri, SS; Gernaey, KV; Bayer, C; Young, BR
The continual economic drive to achieve improved process efficiencies has made process integration and intensification a main stay in process industries ranging from petrochemicals to biotechnology. However, from a process control viewpoint these integrated and intensified processes are much harder to control due to complex process dynamics and/or reduced degrees of freedom. As such, in many process industries the realized efficiency gain through integration and intensification is diminished. The objective of this article is to highlight some of the lessons learnt by the authors during their involvement in controlling intensified processes in different process industries. To this end two industrial troubleshooting case studies of a side-draw distillation column and a divided wall column are presented together with actual problems the facilities faced and how the solutions developed enabled them to be remedied within industrial limitations. This is followed by an analysis of the current process integration and intensification drive of dairy and bioprocesses. Finally the lessons learnt in these diverse process industries are summarized and its implication for process control discussed.
item: Conference-Abstract
Cost competitive “Soft Sensor” for determining product recovery in industrial methanol
(2017) Udugama, IA; Mansouri, SS; Huusom, JK; Taube, MA; Maidl, A; Young, B
The measurement of ratio of product recovery in industrial methanol distillation is of high economic importance and represent a key performance index (KPI) of the distillation unit. In current operations, the product recovery of many industrial distillation units are not actively monitored, instead back calculated from daily production reports. The active monitoring of product recovery can be a costly affair as it requires expensive gas chromatographs and accurate feed mass flow measuring devices to be installed. Historically, this has been one of the key reasons for not actively monitoring product recovery. In this work a novel, simple and economical method based on density and flow rate measurements to calculate the product recovery of industrial methanol distillation columns has been developed. This method has been validated against plant measurements as well as a validated process simulation. Step and disturbance tests carried out suggest the proposed method is able to accurately estimate the product recovery within the plant operational envelope, but lacks the ability to capture the process dynamics during process changes.
item: Conference-Full-text
Dangers of component trapping in distillation: an industrial methanol distillation case study
(IEEE, 2018-05) Udugama, IA; Mansouri, SS; Kirkpatrick, R; Young, B; Taube, MA; Chathuranga, D
The formation of organic acids due to secondary reactions is an issue in industrial methanol synthesis. As such, to avoid the formation of acidic regions in the units downstream of the methanol synthesis loop, caustic dosing is a common practice in the industry. Despite these precautions, some organic acids can be left in crude methanol discharge from the methanol synthesis loop. The objective of this study was to identify if the mode of operations in the methanol distillation units that purifies the crude methanol into high purity product can potentially lead to an accumulation of trace organic acids within the main refining column, which can lead to the formation of an acidic region within the column. To carry out this work, the main refining column of an industrial methanol producer was first simulated on the industrial process simulation platform VMGSim, and then validated against available data. This simulation was then used to study the accumulation of organic acids ranging from formic acid to valeric acid, where they were added to the feed stream at a concentration of 1 ppm. The study found that propionic and butyric acid, in particular, can accumulate significantly in the middle of the column reaching a concentration of 40 to 80 ppm creating an acidic environment ( PH 3.63), which can cause corrosive damage.