Emerson Process Experts

This one was too good not to highlight. For those not familiar with the look of DeltaV controller and I/O subsystem, here's what it looks like when it's a chocolate cake:

Emerson's DeltaV team is honored to be a part of Professor Atanas Serbezov and his Advanced Process Control class at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology's Department of Chemical Engineering in celebration of completion of another successful semester.

For all the engineering students in all the great educational institutions across the globe, process manufacturers and automation suppliers look forward to those of you who choose to join our ranks!

Tags: Rose-Hulman | APC | Advanced Process Control |

May 15, 2008 in Education, in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)

I mentioned submittal of two social media-based abstracts to the Emerson Exchange in an earlier post. Each year, the Emerson Exchange board members receive way more submittals than they can accept, so anyone who wants to present has to keep their fingers crossed.

The good news is that one of the two was accepted. Deb Franke and I will be presenting:

Feeding that Inner Geek

Join Deb Franke and Jim Cahill in a conversation on using the internet, high-tech gadgets, and social media technologies that will enable you to be more productive and effective in all that you do, especially in your working career.

We picked this title because it was the title one of the most visited blog posts on this site to date. And with the Emerson Exchange's hundreds of sessions to choose from, we wanted a title that might stand out.

The goal is to build on presentation we did last year, Getting the Most Value from the Internet: How New Web 2.0 Tools and Techniques Can Help You Innovate.

Social media tools continue to proliferate as people learn the value they can bring. Two examples that we did not discuss last year are Twitter and Friendfeed. Friendfeed is new and Twitter is rapidly growing. I have been looking into the utility of Twitter for people with interest in the DeltaV system, to connect and communicate directly with one another. As learning occurs along the way, I'm sharing tips with our nascent DeltaV Twitter community.

The common thread with these social media applications is that they connect people with other people who have similar interests. Our hope is that one of these interests is around our world of process automation.

One final note, we have the honor of being one of the blogs mentioned in the new book, Groundswell. Written by Forrester Research principal analysts, Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li, it helps you and your business clearly formulate your strategy with respect to social media. I just finished the book the other night, and in the spirit of the groundswell, put my review of it on Amazon.com. Hint… I liked it.

Tags: emerson exchange | web 2.0 | social media | groundswell |

May 2, 2008 in Education, in Emerson Exchange | Comments (2)

Over the past several weeks, ModelingAndControl.com's Greg McMillan has shared a three-part series on common control myths with his readers. In the initial post in the series, Common Control Myths – Part 1, Greg offers five myths, which he then shoots down, one by one.

Three of his five involve disturbances in the process. On unmeasured disturbances, Greg offers the following myth and rebuttal:

Unmeasured disturbances are a side issue – if there were no unmeasured disturbances, control would be a non issue because you could home in on the controller output that corresponds to the desired set point for a process variable. You would just need to run some data fitting algorithm one time and the loop would be set for the life of the process. In reality, there are always unmeasured disturbances.

Often the best-laid designs on newly commissioned loops require adjustments over time as the control engineer learns about the unmeasured disturbances impacting the loop.

In the second post in the series, Greg gets deep into the equations to show the scan time effects on peak and integrated errors. Since I've forgotten more than I've remembered, I'll trust him that the math checks out… J

In the final post of the trilogy, Greg debunks control myths six through ten. These include control valve performance, pH sensors, and thermocouples versus RTDs. For example, on pH sensors, he writes:

The most accurate type of pH sensors are used most often – the most popular sensors are the ones that require the least amount of maintenance, such as references with solid electrolytes, even though these may require more time to equilibrate and have a more variable junction potential. The flowing liquid junction reference for the right materials of construction and electrolyte is generally the most accurate but the least used type of pH electrode in industry because of the need to pressurize and refill the reservoir.

If you're early in your career as an automation engineer, you definitely want to subscribe to the ModelingAndControl.com RSS feed as one of your shortcuts to rapid learning.

Update: I was a bit too hasty calling it a trilogy! Greg has unleashed Part 4 of his common control myths.

Tags: controller tuning | loop performance | process control | process dynamics | unmeasured disturbances |

March 14, 2008 in Control Strategies, in Education | Comments (0)

The Automation List on Control.com recently had a question about IMC Tuning for Integrated Processes. I googled around for IMC or internal model control for a good definition and found these 2002 Introduction to Robust Control lecture notes:

The Internal Model Control (IMC) philosophy relies on the Internal Model Principle, which states that control can be achieved only if the control system encapsulates, either implicitly or explicitly, some representation of the process to be controlled.

The Automation List question asked how IMC can be implemented if the process time constant, process gain, control integral and controller gain are unknown. This person did a manual step test on the drum level feedwater control valve and the drum level starts to integrate (rise.) Measuring this occurrence provides dead time, level rate of change and change in control valve position.

The questioner writes:

I know you can implement Lambda Tuning, but from what I've seen with this, you end up with a very sluggish system that responds quite poorly due to the low value of Kc (please don't comment here on 3 element control, as this is not apart of the discussion).

Am I missing something here, or have other people used different methods?

We've had several posts in the past on Lambda tuning, so I forwarded this question to Mark Coughran, a senior control engineering consultant on the Advanced Applied Technology team.

Mark notes:

Whatever method you use, it is important to understand each of the terms in the equations and the appropriate units of measure. Training is available to make clear how to measure the process dynamics, choose Lambda, and calculate the controller gain and reset. Emerson Educational Services offers the courses Process Dynamics, Control and Tuning Fundamentals (9030) and Modern Loop Tuning (9032). Tools and on-site services are also available.

Lambda tuning simply means the loop will not oscillate and you choose the speed of closed-loop response (Lambda), within some reasonable constraints. There is no reason to believe that Lambda tuning is arbitrarily "slow" or "fast", since you choose the Lambda.

ZN or Ziegler-Nichols is a method to deliberately make the loop oscillate. This is not a good idea in any process plant.

Tags: process time constant | process gain | controller gain | Lambda tuning | Ziegler-Nichols |

February 8, 2008 in Asset Optimization, in Education, in Variability Management | Comments (0)

Let's end this week highlighting a new book by ModelingAndControl.com's Greg McMillan. The book, The Funnier Side of Retirement for Engineers and People of the Technical Persuasion, is a very funny look at those entering their golden, post-work years.

When I saw this news on my DeltaV News RSS feed, I rushed up to Greg's office to see if I could get my hands on one of the books, which I did (score!) I'm a big fan of Greg's top ten lists, his marriage of humor and our technical world of process control and of course the illustrations by Ted Williams.

As Greg mentions in his post about the book, Now for Something Completely Different:

About every year since 1985, I wrote a book whether I needed to or not. Some of the books were written to entertain myself and hopefully others by adding a humorous view point to what is normally a very a serious profession.

Imagine writing a book a year for over 20 straight years… wow! And I think a few blog posts a week are tough…

For his older books where Greg has received back the copyrights, he's generously offered these free to the world on the EasyDeltaV.com Process Control Insights area. You can get a sample of this humor and fun illustrations in the eBook, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Control Room.

My guess is that you'll enjoy this book whether you're approaching these golden years yourself or even if not.

Tags:

January 25, 2008 in Education, in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)

Before the holidays, ModelingAndControl.com's Greg McMillan had another set of eBooks, Centrifugal and Axial Compressor Control Student Text and Instructor's Guide, published in the Process Control Insights area of the EasyDeltaV.com website. These books were originally published in 1983 and the copyrights were returned to Greg.

As described in the "About the Book" section, the text is geared for instrumentation and process control design engineers. The text describes:

…the surge phenomena and illustrates the effect of the operating conditions on surge. Covers various methods of throughput and surge feedback control. It explains the need for preprogrammed open-loop surge control and describes newly developed methods for implementation and coordination with feedback control.

Greg was recently asked by a colleague how surge control might be applied in automation systems like the DeltaV system. He responded:

DeltaV provides an excellent solution for nearly any control system that prevents surge by the manipulation of a control valve if you make the execution time of the module 0.1 to 0.2 seconds so that it is much faster than valve. Surge control valves have a response time of 1 to 5 seconds. Also, you should configure an open loop back in the DeltaV module because once a compressor gets into surge a feedback PI loop can't get it out of surge no matter how fast it is due to the flow reversals every couple of seconds. The open loop back up is simply a CALC block in DeltaV that puts the PI in ROUT and increments the surge valve position when activated. When deactivated it returns the PI to its preferred mode. The trigger for activation is a crossing of a line between the actual surge curve and the surge controller set point allowing for some error in the knowledge of the surge curve. The clear point for deactivation is a point well to the right of the surge controller set point for at least a couple of seconds.

This set of eBooks joins his other freely available eBooks:

• A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Control Room
• Biochemical Measurement and Control
• Continuous Control Techniques for Distributed Control Systems

If your process includes centrifugal or axial compressors, you may want to take a look these latest additions to the eBook library.

Tags: surge control | compressor surge | centrifugal compressor | axial compressor | feedback control |

January 3, 2008 in Compressor Surge Control, in Education | Comments (0)

Engineers being the problem solvers that they are, typically enjoy a project in full execution mode. Problems must be quickly confronted and solved to keep everything moving forward. As we've mentioned in earlier posts, the part they typically like least is the upfront justification to get the projects approved in the first place.

Emerson's Pete Sharpe, a principal consultant in the Advanced Automation Services organization, shared his thoughts on automation investment justification with the readers of Automation World magazine. The article, Strengthen Company, Minimize Risk, pointed to areas of opportunity for project justification.

Pete's guidance is to look at the economic buckets your efforts in automation can influence, which boils down to increasing profits and minimizing risk. Simply put:

To increase profits, "you must either increase revenues or lower costs," he emphasizes. Revenue is a bucket on the positive side of the formula that is affected by things like throughput, yields, recoveries or product price. That means "you have to shift production toward the more valuable products, or increase yield, reduce off-spec, product losses and downgrades of product," Sharpe states. Cost-lowering considerations could involve maintenance, labor, energy, utilities or raw materials, among other areas.

Pete cites an example of looking at quality. Poor quality can lead to customer rejection, off spec and rework. Providing better quality than is specified in the contract is called "quality giveaway". It likely means additional costs are being incurred without receiving additional price for this quality. This is particularly relevant to commodity markets such as gasoline and diesel. Other potential sources of justification are in intangible costs like safety and environmental compliance.

Minimizing risk is about reducing the probability that something bad will occur in the plant's operation. These projects focus on improving reliability, safety, environmental liability, and dealing with abnormal situations. Risk can be evaluated based on the frequency and severity of historical incidents. Then appropriate application of technology and programs designed to mitigate the highest risk areas by applying such things as predictive maintenance, operator training systems or abnormal situation prevention technologies.

The key is to look for how your project will affect the throughput, production costs and total production value on an on-going basis. Ultimately, the expected financial return of the project will determine whether the project goes forward or not. The article sums this up:

...the ultimate metric for justifying investments is ROI. He notes that it includes the time value of money, and calculation of returns based on expected future cash flows from the investment.

In most companies, the management team evaluates potential projects based on the expected return and the risk associated with the investment. The projects with the highest rate of return and lowest perceived risk are those that will likely be funded. In almost all cases, the project return must exceed the manufacturer's cost of capital, which varies depending on company. Pete notes that there are exceptions where a low return, discretionary project is approved. This could be a "stay-in-business" investment decision, which ultimately is about reducing overall business risk.

Tags: project justification | quality giveaway | safety compliance | environmental compliance |

January 2, 2008 in Education, in Modernization, in Project Services | Comments (0)

Emerson technologist and ModelingAndControl.com blogger, Greg McMillan, coauthors with Solutia's Mark Sowell an article, Virtual Control of Real PH in the November issue of Control magazine. The wonderful thing about Greg's writing is that it seems to always include experienced-based rules of thumb, a lack of sugarcoating the facts, and large amounts of humor. You can see what I mean on the Process Control Insights area where we've been collecting his works.

In this article, the authors waste no time in mentioning why we should be interested in reading the article. Most plants have pH control applications, even if in their waste-treatment areas. These areas usually have environmental compliance issues and for applications like crystallizers, fermenters, reactors, and strippers, pH control is critical.

My example of Greg not sugarcoating the facts is:

While we tend to focus on the configuration of the DCS, achieving the full potential of the pH measurement requires exceptional attention to every aspect of the system design. Deficiencies in the equipment, piping, valves or sensor selection or installation can cause the system to fail miserably.

This advice alone may save someone loads of troubleshooting time by first looking at the field equipment and installation before fiddling with the automation system's configuration and tuning.

He's also very good at simplifying the approach to pH control problem solving by helping the reader form a quick mental picture:

The name of the game with pH is to minimize the loop dead time to minimize the excursion along the highly nonlinear titration curve.

The solution described in the article is to use a virtual plant—a dynamic simulation of the waste-treatment system—based on a first-principle dynamic model of the pH system and control system configuration. These all run in the same PC. Dynamic simulations can be quite complex but here's where Greg's rules of thumb based on his experience come in. The key is to focus on simplification and attention to the details that really matter. An example of a rule of thumb:

For pH modeling for process control of environmental systems, about 20 acids and bases cover about 90% of the applications. The physical properties requirements are much less (just molecular weight, density and dissociation constants of each acid and base). The waste treatment systems are normally dilute enough so that activity coefficients are not needed.

They used the virtual plant to see if the existing fuzzy logic control could be replaced with a straightforward model predictive control (MPC) strategy. You'll have to read the article to see the full approach but the bottom line was that:

The MPC did a much better than expected job of chasing the acid concentration… We confirmed later that the production unit that was the source of most of the strong acid was having issues. A comparison of the virtual plant and actual plant control valve positions and pH response revealed there was no flow going through one of the second-stage reagent valves. The problem cleared a day after a phone call.

I had to wrap up this post with an example of Greg's ever-present humor that engineers can appreciate:

It takes more and more interesting opportunities to get weathered engineers excited. However, the almost limitless opportunities to explore advanced control ideas make us downright tingly.

If you've been fighting pH control, the article is well worth it as is the "Extra-Credit Reading" they cite.

Tags: pH control | pH measurement | virtual control | virtual plant |

November 29, 2007 in Education, in Regulatory Compliance, in pH Control | Comments (0)

As he announces yet another eBook now available, ModelingAndControl.com's Greg McMillan continues to share his control expertise with the world.

Greg describes the book Biochemical Measurement and Control:

When Monsanto was making the transition to a life science company, I had the opportunity to work on fermenter measurement and control for various genetically engineered products. Important opportunities identified then such as the application of mass spectrometers, dissolved carbon dioxide probes, and inferential measurements of metabolic processes have come to fruition today opening the door to more advanced process analysis and control techniques. Additionally the applications gave me a chance to apply my expertise in pH measurement and control in new ways and dig into the practical aspects of dissolved oxygen measurement and control.

As he goes on to mention, the progression of technology and new thinking prompted an updated version, New Directions in Bioprocess Modeling and Control: Maximizing Process Analytical Technology Benefits published by ISA in 2006. This book:

…provides an updated view and details on new tools for batch modeling, analysis, and control. This ISA book includes the development of neural network inferential measurements of dryer moisture by Washington University in Saint Louis and my first principle dynamic fermentor models for the National Corn to Ethanol Research Center. The book concludes with an excellent review of new technology for batch analytics by the University of Texas.

As I had mentioned in an earlier post, Greg has chosen to make many of his works available as free eBooks once the copyrights are returned to him. So, for the next many years, the Bioprocess book is available for purchase from the ISA folks or in the DeltaV Bookstore, along with many other great books we've discovered along the way.

We live in great times where many with expertise make it freely available. If this expertise happens to intersect with our interests and we have some bandwidth to absorb it, we're but a mere Google search (or whatever your favorite search engine happens to be) away. It just wasn't this easy way back when!

Tags: biochemical | bioprocess | life science | Greg McMillan |

October 26, 2007 in Education, in Life Sciences, in Measurement | Comments (2)

If you're an automation professional and not already subscribed to the ModelingAndControl.com blog, you're missing some great stuff.

Greg McMillan has recently posted three "sensible sensor installation" posts:

• Sensible Sensor Installation
• Sensible Sensor Installation - Follow Up
• Sensible Sensor Installation - Tips

Greg offers his rules of thumb based on his vast plant experience for installing temperature and pH sensors. Here's an example from his initial post:

The best sensitivity from a temperature or pH sensor can generally be achieved by an installation where the tip of the thermowell or electrode is in the center of the pipeline. This is particularly important when there is a high viscosity fluid such as a polymer for temperature control or concentrated sulfuric acid reagent for pH control. For temperature, it is also desirable to maximize the insertion length in the center line to reduce the thermal conduction error from the tip to the flange. The insertion of the thermowell into an elbow affords this opportunity.

I know when I was a young systems engineer I would have really appreciated more rules of thumb to give me grounding on some of the things I needed to consider. Experience teaches these things, so any shortcuts to gain these experiences are greatly appreciated.

As I mentioned in a Web 2.0 presentation at the last Emerson Exchange, many ways are emerging to share your process automation expertise. A blog is one way, but other ways include adding/modifying entries in Wikipedia, social bookmarking with Del.icio.us, and sharing interesting posts you come across with web-based RSS readers like Google Reader.

If you've not yet taken the plunge to see what subscribing to RSS feeds is all about, see the screencast of how to subscribe to this blog, and how to import my blogroll. This is my way of helping get you jumpstarted to these rules of thumb with many automation and process industry-based blogs, including Terry and Greg's ModelingAndControl.com.

Tags: pH | sensor installation | thermowell |

October 19, 2007 in Education, in Measurement, in pH Control | Comments (0)

John Dolenc, a principal consulting engineer in Emerson's advanced applied technology organization whom you may recall from earlier posts, presented Estimating Benefits from Process Automation at the Emerson Exchange.

John began by discussing what types of activities are performed during a process automation modernization feasibility study. Project justification is one of the most difficult steps to complete.

Start with looking at the plant as a financial asset. Perform a financial balance across a process unit in the same manner as performing a material and energy balance. Capital enters a process unit in the raw materials, net utilities, operating expenses, and maintenance expenses. Value is added within the process unit. Capital flows out in primary and secondary products as well as the waste streams. After identifying the financial streams, identify areas that need improvement and determine whether better process automation can help.

Capital projects are justified by either increasing the revenue of the plant or by reducing the costs to manufacture the products. Revenue may be increased through increasing production capacity (if additional product can be sold), and increasing the yield of more profitable products while reducing lower grade product and waste streams. Look for capacity increases through being able to run closer to constraints by reduced process variability. Can you reduce unproductive time such as grade changeovers, off-spec blending and downtime for cleaning through better process control? Can you reduce cycle time for batch processes by better control of reaction conditions and eliminating wait time for operator actions?

Another method of increasing plant profitability is by working with the marketing and sales force to understand what your customers' value about your product. Can price be slightly increased if the product consistently meets specification and delivery schedules and emergency production is provided when needed?

Reducing costs are a big area of value creation. Some areas to look for cost reduction opportunities include increasing feedstock yield, reducing energy consumption, better use of direct and indirect labor, and limiting off-spec material, abnormal events, demurrage and maintenance.

These are the opportunities for automation project financial justification. So what are some benefit estimation methods you can employ? John mentioned the best operator method, data reduction method, and percent limit violation as three methods of estimation. The best operator method considers historically identifying key performance indicators at their optimum point. What are the "best operators" doing to make this happen? The key is to look for how to automate these best practices. Your project justification is the difference between operating at the "best operator" condition versus the historical average condition.

John went through an example of looking at batch cycle times, throwing out outliers caused by extenuating circumstances, and digging into the process automation that can be done to move from the average cycle time to the best cycle time.

He discussed the other methods, data reduction method and limit violation methods. With the latter, conceptually the results of the automation project are to reduce overall variability. This means you can run closer to your process or specification limit. This means operating set points can be set closer to these limits, thus reducing costs such as product giveaways and excess energy usage. The presentation includes some of the statistical methods to build your financial justification. John offered a rule of thumb that you would reduce standard deviation by at least 50% by improving overall control performance.

John summarized his presentation with these key points:

• Justification is difficult, but necessary to receive approval for automation projects
• Historical data collection is vital
• Build a base case
• Some "prediction" of results is necessary

Tags: estimation methods | feasibility study | capital project | best operator method | data reduction method | percent limit violation | control performance |

September 25, 2007 in Education, in Emerson Exchange, in Modernization | Comments (0)

I really enjoy getting the chance to present to at the Emerson Exchange. This year, I teamed up with Emerson e-Marketing manager, Deb Franke, to discuss the emergence of Web 2.0 applications and technologies. Deb and I have teamed on many initiatives over the years, including nagivating the path to make the Emerson Process Experts blog a reality.

Our presentation was entitled, Getting the Most Value from the Internet: How New Web 2.0 Tools and Techniques Can Help You Innovate. We have embedded voiceover notes in the presentation and separately in a presentation transcript.

Both sessions of the presentation were very well attended, even surprisingly, the 8 am Thursday morning session. These late-week, early morning sessions can get dicey given the catching up process with friends and acquaintances which have been known (I'm told) to carry on into the wee hours.

The premise of our discussion is that the web has been changing from a one-way monolog (Web 1.0) to dialogs or many-to-many conversations (Web 2.0). We explored two paths, information consumption and information production. From an information consumer standpoint, Deb discussed ways to be more efficient in finding the information you need to be more effective and innovative. The presentation includes short screencasts (no audio) showing how to subscribe to RSS feeds using Google Reader and how to get a jump-start in subscribing to all the automation feeds on my blogroll on the right side area of this page.

I discuss the information production path, discussing ways to un-trap the wisdom that is often locked in our email inboxes and sent items folders. One of the applications described is Del.icio.us, which also has a screencast demo.

In the spirit of contributing to those who could not attend, we've captured everything we discussed as well as the questions and answers from both sessions. These are available on an Emerson Exchange Resources page on this blog. We also include participation tips if you're ready to share your expertise with the world. If you have questions after seeing the presentation and other materials, join the conversation and add a comment.

For those planning to attend next year's event in Washington D.C., keep me posted on your Web 2.0 experiences, and perhaps we can jointly present.

Tags: Emerson Exchange | Web 2.0 | RSS | OPML | Del.icio.us | screencast |

September 18, 2007 in Education, in Emerson Exchange, in Screencast | Comments (0)

As reported in the DeltaV News RSS feed recently, Automation World magazine's C. Kenna Amos wrote an article, Getting Projects Approved. I know from my days as a systems engineer, that financially justifying a capital project was not nearly as fun as executing the project. Most engineers enjoy the action of seeing their work come to life more than convincing others to approve the capital to get the project going. They also are not typically versed in the language of financial analysis.

The article captures the wisdom of Emerson's Doug White, a vice president of advanced automation services. Doug and his team often assist process manufacturers in ways to help quantify return on investment for automation and advanced automation projects.

In the article, Doug notes:

The project has to be very attractive to be funded, because it will compete with others. The project has to show a clear and compelling return on investment.

Easy enough, but the trick is how to do this. Doug recommends that engineers work with the financial group to understand their selection criteria for capital projects. Basics for most projects include cash outflow analysis and when the return on investment begins. This is the basis for the payback calculations. Also, the capital proposal should include key non-quantifiable benefits often found in health, safety, and environmental (HSE) considerations.

The closer you can tie your proposal to key organizational initiatives, the more the proposal will be noticed more than others will. When it comes to presenting your proposal:

Begin by first defining the problem, then telling them why your project is important and giving reasons why it needs to be done, he emphasizes. Then—and only then—go into financials, beginning with the most likely scenario.

Doug has captured much of his experience in a whitepaper, Calculating ROI for Automation Projects. It comprehensively goes through the components of return on invested capital and how to calculate each component. Give this whitepaper a thorough review and you will be better prepared to have that conversation with the financial group.

For those of you going to the Emerson Exchange next week in Dallas, make sure to catch Doug's short course, How To Find The Economics For Process Automation Investments that will be held Tuesday at 2:15pm and repeated Wednesday at 8am. Here's the abstract for this presentation:

This session presents realistic approaches to automation project economic analysis and justification. The viewpoint is that of the business financial analyst. Specific areas where automation affects the business results are identified and quantified.

Tags: capital projects | automation modernization | ROI analysis | project justification | project payback |

September 4, 2007 in Education, in Emerson Exchange, in Modernization | Comments (0)

Prolific author (examples here, here, and here to name a few) and ModelingAndControl.com blogger, Greg McMillan, continues to share his process control wisdom and expertise with the world.

This week he announced another freely available ebook, Continuous Control Techniques for Distributed Control Systems. This is the second in a series of books where the copyright has been returned to Greg after a time being held by the publisher.

Instead of burying these works in a box somewhere, Greg has chosen to make these freely available to help our current and future generations of automation and control engineers learn the craft as they search the internet and come upon these on-line works.

As he mentions in his post, this book follows in the footsteps of the first eBook, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Control Room. He also mentions another eBook is planned, Biochemical Measurement and Control.

If you are a control engineer or student of this profession you should be subscribed to the ModelingAndControl.com RSS feed to learn from one the members of the process automation hall of fame! Also, make sure to visit a listing of Greg's works over the years in the Process Control Insights section of the EasyDeltaV.com website.

Tags: eBook | Greg McMillan | process control | continuous control | ModelingAndControl.com |

August 22, 2007 in Education, in Process Optimization | Comments (0)

In an earlier post, I had mentioned that my colleague Deb Franke and I will be presenting at the Emerson Exchange (September 10-14, Dallas TX.) The topic is how new Web 2.0 tools and techniques can help you innovate (presented twice--Wednesday 3pm / Thursday 8am.)

There must be something to this topic, because I discovered that we're not alone. Emerson's Marshall Meier, a project manager for Foundation fieldbus projects involving Rosemount FF transmitters, is presenting the topic, Web 2.0 in the plant. You can bet I'll be at one of his two sessions (Tuesday 10am / Wednesday 8am.)

Marshall indicated the goal of his presentation is to introduce the audience to various Web 2.0 technologies, and give them some ideas on how those technologies could be used in a plant. Here's his submitted abstract:

In 2006, Time Magazine said YOU were the Person of the Year. "You" being one of the millions, maybe billions, of people in the world who are building Web 2.0. The web is no longer read-only medium, rather an interactive environment where the users both generate and consume the content. This workshop will introduce you to some of the most interesting Web 2.0 technologies out there.

Marshall plans to cover the definition of Web 2.0, various examples like RSS, social bookmarking, wikis, video sharing, maps, and photo sharing. These will include possible applications in plants. He'll be looking to have a very interactive session to explore other potential uses for these people-connecting technologies.

Marshall also shared that like me, he's a huge fan of RSS for its ability to bring information to him based on his interests.

Tags: Web 2.0 | Emerson Exchange | RSS |

August 17, 2007 in Education, in Emerson Exchange | Comments (1)

An RSS search feed pointed to a Process and Control Today news item about the opening on a new Emerson European flow center. This center provides comparison, selection, final assembly, configuration, calibration, testing, support and training for quite a range of Emerson Process management flow brands including Micro Motion, Rosemount, and Brooks Instrument. The flow technologies include Coriolis, magnetic flow, vortex, thermal mass flow, and variable area meters.

The center was built to help process manufacturers primarily in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. With so many technologies, each have their advantages in different applications, it was important to have a common area where manufacturers could work with product and application experts to properly select and configure the best solution for the application.

I caught up with Emerson's Henk Verweerd who shared some highlights with me. The center, located between Arnhem and Utrecht in the Netherlands, supports seven languages, employs 275 people, and covers over 9000 square meters of floor space. In addition to the technical and application support, the team performs project and order management, repair management, and creation of documentation for projects and required regulatory agencies.

With the trend toward project modularization to decrease project schedules, the team helps instrument integrated systems for railcar, ship and truck loading/unloading, pipeline/LPG/LNG/gas metering, and proving Coriolis meters. The flow center includes four mini-plants fully instrumented with Foundation fieldbus devices to provide hand-on training for flow meters and applications, including the diagnostics these devices can provide to the automation systems.

Henk mentioned that the whole reason for the facility was to bring together experts from the various product lines to be able to work with manufacturers and quickly arrive at the best solution. It also helps provide better service, support, and input for future product improvements.

Tags: flow meter | flow measurement | foundation fieldbus | Coriolis | magnetic flow | vortex | thermal mass flow | variable area meter |

August 3, 2007 in Education, in Foundation Fieldbus, in Measurement, in Support Services | Comments (2)

Pharmaceutical Technology magazine published an interesting article by Emerson's Bob Lenich and Christie Deitz. The article, A Look at 30 Years of Change in Pharmaceutical Automation, recounts the changes affecting Life Science manufacturers from the late 1970s though today. I joined the world of process automation in the early 80s as a summer systems engineering intern in offshore oil and gas production and this article brought back some memories of the amazing changes we've seen.

I'll highlight some items from the article to see if it generates any nostalgic thoughts for you.

Although the distributed control system came along in the mid-70s, Bob and Christie note that most life science companies used pneumatic and single-loop electronic controllers. Data was collected manually or with circular and strip charts.

With growing U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations through the late 70s and early 80s, the DCS began to be seen by life science manufacturers as a tool to help comply.

Batch-based automation systems, the first one being the PROVOX system, came out in the early-to-mid 80s to help with sequencing, failure handling, parallel unit operations, and the creation of recipes.

Just a few years before I recall a little collaborative effort between IBM and Microsoft being introduced to the market (wow a 4.77MHz CPU!) This would have some impact in our industry in the following decade as commercially available technologies (COTS) were incorporated.

Toward the later part of the 80s and into the 90s, standards began to play a larger role. ISA-88 (S88), a batch automation standard was important to life science manufacturers. The digital busses including Foundation fieldbus were developing, and Microsoft operating systems began to make their appearance in systems like the DeltaV system. For communications, the OLE for Process Control (OPC) standard became the way to connect Microsoft-based clients and servers—a big improvement over earlier generation DDE communications technologies.

Automation systems became increasingly modular with class-based configurations. These technologies would help the trend toward more modular construction techniques that brought production on-line quicker compared with prior construction and engineering methods.

Regulations continued to advance to try to address concerns around system, production and data management through the balance of the 90s. Efforts began on the ISA-95 (S95) standard to better define the integration of enterprise and control systems.

These regulations had a positive impact in building competency around data security, record security, lot tracking, and overall batch management. The downside was that it placed the focus of life science manufacturers on meeting regulations rather than continually improving their manufacturing operations compared with other industries.

The FDA's Process Analytical Technologies (PAT) initiative addressed this by changing the focus from meeting regulations to improving operation. The FDA's cGMPs for the 21^st Century added in using a risk-based approach to these improvements. As part of this initiative, they encouraged the use of innovative technologies. We've addressed a number of these innovations with respect to PAT in earlier posts.

Bob and Christie closed the article with a note of how flexibility and the integration of automation with the business-level systems is becoming increasingly important as life science manufacturers move from organic-based synthesis to biologics to continue to develop vaccines and medicines to address our health needs.

Update: Thank you Eric for pointing out the error of my ways! The link to the OPC Foundation has been corrected.

Tags: life science | pharmaceutical | FDA | batch automation | S88 | S95 | OPC | process analytical technologies | PAT | cGMP |

July 25, 2007 in Education, in Life Sciences | Comments (1)

I was catching up on my RSS feeds over our middle of the week U.S. Independence Day holiday. My RSS search feed on the IEC 61511 global safety standard (ISA 84.01 in the U.S.) turned up this press release on a DVD set released by the Safety Users Group. They describe the purpose of this production:

In the style of a documentary, this unique DVD will provide you with expert points of view, as well as specific concepts, definitions, experiences, examples, analysis and results from 11 world-renowned professionals in the safety industry. These experts are designers, manufacturing leaders, engineering companies, integrators, standards members, professors, legal council and TÜV certified Functional Safety experts.

Emerson's Thomas Steiner is one of the safety experts interviewed. He is one of a large number of Emerson certified functional safety experts (CFSE) and certified functional safety professionals (CFSP). The mission of this certification process as stated on the CFSE.org site:

The CFSE (Certified Functional Safety Expert) concept was originally developed by TÜV and exida with the support of other international safety experts to ensure that personnel performing SIS lifecycle activities are competent as required by the IEC 61508, 61511, and 62061 standards.

Thomas discusses some of the basic terminology from the standards such as safe failure fractions (SFF), safety requirement specifications (SRS), and safety integrity levels (SIL) in a very understandable way. He describes how it applies to process manufacturers in applying this standard. You can see his entire interview (16:54) on the EasyDeltaV.com web site.

Overall, there is quite a bit of safety expertise provided by the 11 participants on this two-DVD set. The cost is $115 (USD) and you can get a preview by viewing this trailer of the type of information presented.

If your responsibilities include the IEC 61511 safety lifecycle and you need a good primer or refresher from knowledgeable safety experts, consider this DVD set as one of your learning resources.

Tags: IEC 61511 | S84.01 | CFSE | CFSP | safety failure fraction | safety integrity level | safety requirement specification |

July 5, 2007 in Education, in Safety | Comments (0)

Emerson's Pete Sharpe, an advanced automation consultant, was recently interviewed for a magazine article on the subject of process manufacturers' aging workforce. Manufacturers primarily in North America and Western Europe are feeling this loss of experience due to retirement.

Pete indicated that the reoccurring theme he hears is the loss of deep process knowledge. This knowledge, possessed by experienced operators, maintenance technicians and senior automation engineers is knowing when something in the process is not quite right, like when a measurement reading looks off, or when the process behavior is not the same. As seasoned operators retire, manufacturers feel this loss of experience most during non-normal conditions like startup, shutdown, or emergency situations.

Problems take longer to diagnose and resolve which can lead to less stable, more dangerous conditions. A recent refinery accident is one example where the problem diagnosis did not occur soon enough. You don't ever hear about most incidents but they certainly cost manufacturers money and often result in close calls that don't actually shut down a unit.

Pete discussed a couple of things automation suppliers are doing to address these issues. The first is improved operator training simulators, which I have written about in earlier blog posts. In this environment, less experienced operators can be challenged with operating problem situations so that they can improve their ability to diagnose the process and respond more quickly to abnormal situations.

As technologies continue to advance, more diagnostic capabilities are available in smart field devices and other plant assets. These devices can provide early warning about their own health and about the surrounding process. These predictive capabilities improve the ability of the maintenance organization to prioritize and respond to critical equipment alerts. Emerson's Abnormal Situation Prevention (ASP) algorithm uses process statistical signature data to give less experienced operators more time to react to abnormal situations and more diagnostic information to point to the root cause of the abnormal situation.

The final advancements that help to close the experience gap are advanced control technologies. As the technology has gotten increasingly scalable and easier to deploy in control systems like the DeltaV system, more and more processes can be operated as units and not as collections of loops. These APC technologies operate a process unit within its equipment constraints, at its most economical point. The operator's role changes from constantly adjusting individual loops to setting targets and constraint limits. APC applications are especially useful for process units that are tricky to run by less experienced operators--where many of the loops interact with one another or the process is highly constrained.

These advancements help ease the learning curve for future operators, maintenance technicians and automation engineers. On the positive side, today's engineers and young operators are nearly all computer-literate, so they can make good use of the modern tools and work processes that come with today's control infrastructure. This computer-savvy generation is more likely to adapt to computer-based control systems and modern fieldbus architectures. In addition, automation suppliers like Emerson are helping to ease this knowledge gap by having people like Pete and the other advanced automation consultants available to work with process manufacturers.

Tags: process knowledge | plant operators | abnormal situation | simulation | advanced process control | APC |

June 19, 2007 in Abnormal Situation Prevention, in Education, in Operator Training | Comments (2)

John Egnew, a training consultant and instructor in Emerson's Educational Services has posted another tip in his series of looptips. John's looptip #12 is entitled Don't Throw Away a Good Thing.

In it, he references how a positioner used on a control valve in a fast-acting loop may actually make the loop more unstable or difficult to control. The likely culprit may be too high of a loop gain. An example of this type of loop might be a fast fluid flow application.

If this is the case, the solution is having the travel feedback signal from the positioner be the inner loop of a cascaded loop. The inner loop of cascade control must be faster than the outer loop.

He also offers specific recommendations whether your loop is running under electronic or pneumatic control.

I hope these tips along with some of the wisdom conveyed by Terry Blevins and Greg McMillan over on the ModelingAndControl.com blog help you tackle some of these situations which can impact the performance of your process.

Tags: control valve | positioner | cascade control | control loop | loop gain |

May 25, 2007 in Education, in Process Optimization | Comments (0)

For those of you challenged with the vagaries of pH control, I wanted to make sure you had seen the news of an upcoming pH Control web seminar, arranged by ISA, featuring ModelingAndControl.com's Greg McMillan. The web seminar covers the root causes of poor performance in pH control systems.

In a recent post, Greg describes how he plans to share his experiences:

I spent a lot of time on pH startups. I found most of the key design concepts needed for success where not discussed anywhere, For example, the normal dip tube design for reagent injection is disastrous and the mixing and valve resolution requirements are exceptional. I discovered how I could reduce the number of stages of neutralization, offer inexpensive alternatives to the classical neutralization vessel, and decide when signal characterization could help or hurt your control objectives.

Unlike his recently released free eBook, this May 16 web seminar (2:00pm - 3:30pm Eastern U.S. Time) does have a cost. It's $195 (USD) for ISA members and $225 (USD) for non-members. If you're not the lone person in your organization who struggles with pH control, Greg suggests:

The seminar is much more cost effective if the registrant connects in a conference room with a computer projector.

If you can't make this event, Greg has also published a book on this topic, Advanced pH Measurement and Control, 3rd Edition.

Tags: pH Control | ISA | neutralization | reagent injection |

May 10, 2007 in Control Strategies, in Education, in pH Control | Comments (0)

A concern I've written about in this blog's education category is that much knowledge in control theory and automation practices is disappearing as our "baby boom" generation begins to retire.

We are constantly trying new approaches to capture and present the knowledge for current and future automation professionals to discover. An example of this includes Terry Blevins and Greg McMillan's ModelingAndControl.com blog.

Another example is the Process Control Insights area on the EasyDeltaV.com site which features application notes, lectures, and links to books written by Greg McMillan.

Greg just announced another project on which our team has been working again in the spirit of sharing the knowledge. Of one of his no-longer-in-print books, he wrote:

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Control Room is my favorite because it presented detailed results of solving tough process control problems in a creative way to help open minds to new possibilities and concepts. This book is out of print but thanks to Deborah Franke at Emerson Process Management, it can be viewed for free in its electronic form… [emphasis added]

This was a case of the publisher turning the copyright over to Greg after the book had been out of print for some time. Instead of collecting dust in a box somewhere, Deb Franke worked with Greg and led the effort to get the book published in the Process Control Insights area of the website.

Over time, we hope to add more works for current and future automation professionals to discover.

Tags: control theory | automation |

May 1, 2007 in Education | Comments (0)

Emerson Educational Services' John Egnew has posted another LoopTip, entitled Is Your Process a Real Character? In it, he explores loops that are in constant need of retuning.

The likely situation is that the process that the loop controls is non-linear.

The solution is either to take advantage on gain scheduling, where the gain of the loop is changed based on which operating region the loop is trying to control. This solution only works for the automation systems which support gain scheduling or built-in adaptive modeling.

John notes that you can select control valves with non-linear characteristics which offset the non-linearity of the process. He describes it:

The control valve characteristic is used to compensate for the process gain to achieve an approximate installed linear process.

He does note it is difficult to exactly get the non-linearities to cancel one another out, but that at least you can come close in approximating a linear constant gain process and be in better shape than before you made the change.

Tags: non-linear | control valve | loop tuning | gain scheduling | adaptive tuning | adaptive modeling | process gain |

April 9, 2007 in Education, in Process Optimization | Comments (0)

I'm checking back in with Emerson Education Center's John Egnew on the great work he continues to do with his Loop Tips.

Since I last checked in, John has added two more tips: The Tricky Transmitter, and The Process that Changes its Mind.

The tricky transmitter tip deals with the case where you might perform transmitter zero and span calibration (or re-ranging.) The operators may notice a change in the loop performance which changes the gain in the transmitter. John shows the math and the corrective action to take (changing the controller gain for those of you who don't follow hyperlinks J. )

In the process that changes its mind, John discusses the case where loops behave differently at different times, going between stable and unstable operation. Most processes have changing process gains. Adjustments to controller gain can be done manually (for very slow changing processes) or through adaptive gain control strategies.

As software continues to get more sophisticated, it can help monitor control performance in each of the loops. By identifying and diagnosing problem loops, recommending tuning and maintenance improvements and continuously adapting to these changing process conditions the effects of nonlinear gain can be mitigated. DeltaV InSight is an example of this type of control performance software.

I need to work with the team to figure out how we can get an RSS feed of these great tips so that anyone interested in keeping up with these tips can subscribe to John's excellent work. There I go again harping about RSS!

Tags: calibration | zeroing | reranging | loop gain | process gain | controller gain |

February 2, 2007 in Education | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

Since the ModelingAndControl.com blog was launched a few months back, Terry Blevins and Greg McMillan have been sharing their expertise in process control gained from years of plant and R&D experience. It's a real treasure trove if you want to learn more about process dynamics, process modeling, and technologies and control strategies to consider in better managing your process.

We decided to put together an area on the EasyDeltaV.com website called Process Control Insights to provide a common area for people to find this experience. As a new, global generation of process automation professional joins us, the hope is that they'll find sites like this to connect to the wisdom of those who lived it for so many years. We are pleased that Greg allowed us to give this a try with much of his work. Here's Process Control Insights' mission:

Welcome to Process Control Insights — your central spot to learn and explore the nature of process control and its fundamental relationships with your processes. We hope this helps you gain a better understanding of the true nature of these dynamics and how it can help you optimize your process.

The site currently includes application notes, lectures, links to written books, and of course links back to the ModelingAndControl.com site. I had a chance to sit down with Greg before the holidays and record a presentation he had recently given to a major pharmaceutical manufacturer on using modeling and advanced control strategies in a batch manufacturing process. Although these control strategies are common in continuous processes, there use in batch processes is still in its infancy.

You can get a flavor for the lecture by listening to the Introduction Batch Control Story. I have some work to do to get the audio better for future lectures. (Hmmm Gary… I hear I'm not alone in this!)

We hope over time to have others provide their real-world experience and expertise to shorten the learning curve for our next generation of process control experts.

Tags: process control | process automation | control strategies | APC | advanced control |

January 24, 2007 in Education | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

For those like me who were college educated in the pre-internet, pre-Google days you can really appreciate how access to information required for learning has gotten easier. With a Google search bar and some quiet time, you can become conversational on nearly any topic in a few minutes and on the road to being an expert with some more time. There is no way we could learn this quickly in the days of libraries and books.

I bring this up because Terry Blevins, co-author of the Modeling and Control blog, and Emerson's Marcos Peluso have made their "best of" Foundation Fieldbus tutorial presentations available over on the EasyDeltaV.com website. This tutorial is covered in 12 parts from a very basic Fieldbus Overview to Advanced Functionality. The presentation series includes:

• Fieldbus Overview
• Justifying Fieldbus
• Example Applications
• Installation of Fieldbus
• Devices Available
• Fieldbus Standard
• Fieldbus Communication
• Fieldbus Function Blocks
• Fieldbus Diagnostics
• Fieldbus EDDL
• HSE Fieldbus
• Advanced Fieldbus

As technologists, Terry and Marcos have created a presentation series which more deeply explores the workings of Foundation fieldbus. This series complements the modules in PlantWeb University in the Foundation fieldbus section in the way an advanced class complements the introductory class.

If you happen to be searching around for information on Foundation Fieldbus and happen upon this blog post, enjoy the fact how quickly you can get conversational or become a true expert based on the time you spend following some of the links.

Tags: foundation fieldbus | fieldbus | tutorial |

November 17, 2006 in Digital Busses, in Education | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

In his continuing series of Loop Tips, John Egnew, a training consultant and instructor for Emerson's Educational Services group discusses the impact of final control element deadband on loops.

His Loop Tip #8: A Chance For Stardom, discusses the case when some loops prove to be difficult to tune, no matter what algorithm is used. He recommends you look at the control valve's deadband which is typically caused by friction and lost motion. John states:

This friction from valve packing, seals, or process buildup can cause valve deadband to be at least 5%.

Adding a positioner can help reduce this deadband to less than 1%. If you get the deadband to a reasonable level, then you can apply tuning based upon the dynamics of the loop.

In the Education category of this blog you'll see quite a number of posts recommending the best way to approach this tuning, including some of John's excellent tips.

Tags: deadtime | control loop | loop tuning | control valve |

November 13, 2006 in Education | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

In addition to the many presentations and demonstrations Terry Blevins and Greg McMillan have been giving this week, they have also gotten out some more jewels on their ModelingAndControl.com blog. Greg has also been showing fresh off the press copies of his new book, Bioprocess Modeling and Control: Maximizing Process Analytical Technology Benefits.

Terry offers up a Basics of Advanced Control post including the overview from his award-winning Advanced Control Unleashed book. He notes that the proceeds from this book go to "universities, consortia, and educational programs to promote and enhance the development and use of advanced process control."

Greg tackles the issues associated with measuring pH in his post, Techniques to Improve pH Measurement Performance. He includes his thoughts on improving pH electrode performance and his unique humor on the top 10 signs of a rough pH startup. I like seeing his natural sense of humor coming early in the life of this blog. Keep it coming!

It's great to see this wisdom put out in blog posts and books. Check out their posts and add your wisdom in the comments section.

Tags: Emerson Exchange | Modeling | Control | Process Analytical Technologies | PAT | pH measurement | advanced control | APC |

October 4, 2006 in Education, in Emerson Exchange | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

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