DCS advanced control improves Chinese ethylene cracker operation

Ethylene capacity in China has doubled during 2005-2010 in response to strong domestic demand. As the largest ethylene producer in China, Sinopec became the fifth largest ethylene producer worldwide in 2010, while it was seventh in 2005. In addition to capacity expansion, Sinopec planned to improve...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Oil & gas journal Vol. 109; no. 1; pp. 96 - 103
Main Authors Wang, Honggang, Wang, Zhenlei, Mei, Hua, Qian, Feng, Tang, Zhiwu
Format Magazine Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Tulsa, OK Pennwell 03.01.2011
Endeavor Business Media
Subjects
Applied sciences
Control algorithms
Crude oil, natural gas and petroleum products
Energy
Energy consumption
Ethylene
Exact sciences and technology
Expansion
Fuels
Heat
Hydrocarbons
Industrial plants
Process control
Process controls
Production capacity
Raw materials
Temperature
Asia
China
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Summary:Ethylene capacity in China has doubled during 2005-2010 in response to strong domestic demand. As the largest ethylene producer in China, Sinopec became the fifth largest ethylene producer worldwide in 2010, while it was seventh in 2005. In addition to capacity expansion, Sinopec planned to improve its plant operations to stay ahead in the fast changing and competitive market. At midyear 2007, Sinopec initiated this project as part of an "advanced process control (APC) promotion project for ethylene crackers and key columns in ethylene units" within its subsidiaries, including Shanghai, Qilu, Guangzhou, Tianjin, and Zhongyuan. This article discusses the APC implementation at the ethylene crackers and highlights the major contributions of this project. The ultimate goal of various control schemes for ethylene crackers is to maintain target conversion and severity while honoring crackers constraints, such as minimum run length, throughput, and maximum valve positions. The application in Sinopec's Shanghai 700,000-tpy ethylene plant was selected to evaluate the performance of APC.
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ISSN:0030-1388
1944-9151