Iterative Real-Time Optimization Scheme for Optimal Operation of Chemical Processes under Uncertainty: Proof of Concept in a Miniplant

Abstract

Real-time optimization (RTO) has gained growing attention during the past few years as a useful approach to boost process performance while safety and environmental constraints are satisfied. Despite the increasing acceptance of RTO in traditional industries such as petrochemical and refineries, its application to novel chemical processes remains limited. This can be partially explained by the fact that only inaccurate models are available and the performance of the traditional RTO scheme suffers in the presence of plant-model mismatch. During the past few years, the so-called modifier-adaptation schemes for real-time optimization have been gaining popularity as an efficient tool to handle plant-model mismatch. So far, there are only few published works regarding experimental implementations. In this contribution, a reliable RTO scheme that is able to deal with model uncertainty and measurement noise is applied to a novel transition metal complex catalyzed process that is performed in a continuously operated miniplant. The experimental results show that the proposed scheme is able to drive the process to an improved operation despite significant plant-model mismatch demonstrating the applicability of the method to real processes.

Surrogate Modeling of Fugacity Coefficients Using Adaptive Sampling

“…The hydroformylation of 1-dodecene with synthesis gas is a reaction network, which was analyzed in detail in the DFG collaborative research center/Transregio 63 InPROMPT (see, e.g., refs − ). In contrast to standard hydroformylation processes with short-chain alkenes, it is not possible to dissolve the long-chain alkene 1-dodecene in a polar solvent to get the nonpolar reactant and the polar catalyst system into contact because of the large polarity difference.…”

Optimally Managing Chemical Plant Operations: An Example Oriented by Industry 4.0 Paradigms

“…While petrochemical and refining industries have accepted RTO in the past few years, its application to different chemical processes is still limited. To overcome this, Hernandez et al 22 proposed an RTO scheme applicable to a complex catalyzed process showing operational improvements despite modeling errors. A recent application on the bioethanol production showed that the use of closed-loop dynamic RTO in the ethanol distillation process can improve the profitability of this product as an environmentally friendly fuel 23 .…”

“…21 While petrochemical and refining industries have accepted RTO in the past few years, its application to different chemical processes is still limited. To overcome this, Hernandez et al 22 proposed an RTO scheme applicable to a complex catalyzed process showing operational improvements despite modeling errors.…”

Integrated Process Re-Design with Operation in the Digital Era: Illustration through an Industrial Case Study

“…In this context, real-time optimization (RTO) appears as an adequate approach to adapt the operation to the current environment and aims. RTO makes use of a rigorous stationary model of the process to compute the operation conditions that optimize a predefined performance index, for example, minimization of the operating costs, maximization of product yields, or minimization of waste [8]. There are many examples in the literature of the benefits of using an RTO tool to facilitate the decision-making process [9][10][11][12].…”

“…EC ev X ev,p ≤ EC ev,p ≤ EC ev X ev,p ∀ev ∈ E V, ∀p ∈ P (8) where EC ev and EC ev state the minimum and maximum evaporation load for a plant to operate correctly. With X ev,p we assure that EC ev,p take zero value for the products not linked to plant ev.…”