Slides of this talk (ppt)
Chemical reactor fouling is a widely
recognized challenge for maintaining production
rates and preventing unplanned downtime in
industrial plants. While the extent of fouling is
difficult to measure directly, a long-term effect of
fouling on the process may be evident by
incorporating process knowledge with indirect
measurements. A primary shortcoming of this
heuristic fouling indicator is correlation between
indirect measurements and continually changing
process and ambient conditions.
This talk
presents a moving horizon estimation (MHE)
approach to estimating fouling parameters. The
estimation approach utilizes first principles and
empirical elements to define the process model.
Preliminary results indicate the quantitative fouling
indicator tracks with heuristic process observations
and provides a consistent measure of fouling. This
indicator enables production decision makers to
quantify the effects of process improvements in
order to reduce fouling rates over extended periods
of time under varying conditions.
|