Design and Implementation of Computer Aided Chemical Laboratory Control System

The cost of shutting down a refinery, or an oil well, or even a digital pipeline can cost millions of dollars in revenue loss to any oil company, and with today's oil prices at their highest peak, this could be devastating to the economy of countries were oil revenue still represents up to 70% of their total GDP. Now imagine, if this was caused by unauthorized access or breach of security to the production operations- Process Control Systems ? Process Control Systems have always been an integral and crucial part of any Energy company's critical infrastructure. Over the years, they have evolved from stand-alone islands to interconnected networks that co-exist with corporate IT environments, introducing many security threats. For the past years, these systems were effectively isolated from sources of cyber threats external to their owners and operators. But today, growing demand in the industry driven by new business requirements and new advancement in technology to link both systems together has led to an increase need to secure process control systems in order to minimize their vulnerabilities to cyber threats. In response, Cisco Systems has developed and innovative solution called "Secure Architecture for Process Control". This solution is designed to address the risks inherent in modern process control systems while providing best of breed security solutions and delivering comprehensive asset protection and secure access to real-time information. This paper will examine the new security threats facing the most critical infrastructures in the Energy industry and it will address the following topics; What are the new business trends and drivers ? What are the new security threats ? How secure is your system ? Should you be worried ? What solutions are available today ? What new services can be introduced ?

The chemical industry’s activities are often controversial due to the high risks that they represent. Over the past decades, serious industrial events affecting lives, facilities and environment have heightened society's awareness of the negative effects of technology. Among the most hateful events in the chemical industries are the phenomena of thermal runaway that often result in operator errors. Predicting and controlling them is essential to the processes design and safe operation. The objective of this work is to develop a method for early detection of malfunctions in a chemical reactor based on a reference model, before resulting in a critical event. For this, the reaction of perhydrolysis of formic acid to peroxyformic acid by hydrogen peroxide is used as a test case to simulate the reaction in abnormal operating mode. This exothermic reaction is composed of several secondary decomposition steps. The kinetic model of the reaction was determined in order to simulate the reaction in an abnormal mode with defects related to operator error. The detection method has been validated by simulation data. A performance analysis of the proposed detection method was carried out showing the robustness and the efficiency of this method, in presence of various errors due to the operator. The proposed method can contribute to the safety of chemical reactors in the chemical industry.

In December of 1988 a joint venture led by Freeport Sulphur Company discovered a major brimstone deposit of 67,000,000 long tons twenty miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. At a production of 2 million tons of sulphur per year this facility will be in operation for the next 30 years. This paper will cover the process of automating the frasch sulphur mine including design and planning, redundancy, reliability, training and configuration. A description of system architecture which allows information for production to be gathered and handled at the facility from process control, production and drilling will be presented. The ability to monitor and control the offshore platform from an onshore facility via satellite communications and the ability to network the process control system with a local area network of host and personal computers will be discussed. INTRODUCTION Main Pass Block 299, is located (Fig. 1) in 210 feet of water, 20 miles east of the mouth of the Mississippi River in the Gulf of Mexico. The production facilities will incorporate the latest technology based upon previous applications, the company's expertise in offshore sulphur mining and on proprietary mining techniques that use seawater in sulphur mining. The offshore production facility will be installed on a series of offshore platforms (Fig. 2) linked together by more than a mile of bridges. The Main Pass facilities are scheduled for completion in late 1991 with sulphur production beginning soon thereafter. One of the greatest tools in assisting operations achieve high safety and efficiency goals is through production automation. Improved productivity as well as improved management of production information can be realized from a modern process control system. Through automation and remote monitoring, operating costs can be reduced and production revenues increased. The strategy was to implement a completely integrated information system - one that gives the association of the process operations data with management and business systems data. AUTOMATION PROCESS Planning There are a great number of factors to consider when developing a plan for plantwide process control and flow of information. The needs and requirements of production planning, engineering, maintenance, material handling, scheduling and overall management are unique when it comes to process control data and business information systems. The first step in the planning of the control system was assembling a team of people from the various areas listed above. The company had to make a decision to make available the best that the company has to offer in the areas of production, maintenance and engineering to be a part of the team. Because of their other responsibilities in construction of this facility as well as running existing facilities it is almost impossible for them to spend a majority of their time on process automation alone. Once a team was established then the next step was to set the criteria for controlling the process and the handling of production data.

Implementation of computer aided approach into hazard and operability (HAZOP) study is one of the most researched topics in the field of hazard identification improvement. However, acceptance of an automated HAZOP tool in the industrial practice is limited. This contribution provides retrospective analysis of application issues connected with the use of process simulations in computer aided HAZOP studies. As case studies, mathematical models utilising different sets of unit operations, e.g. plug flow reactor, continuous stirred-tank reactor, phase separator, heat exchanger etc. were analysed. Two different simulation platforms, commercial process simulator Aspen HYSYS and our own mathematical models in MATLAB, were employed. Relevant concerns regarding the use of process simulations in the HAZOP study such as model reliability and its parameter uncertainties effect on the HAZOP study output and interpretation variability of quantitative HAZOP deviations for process simulations are discussed. It is demonstrated that the application of process simulation is a feasible way to perform precise safety analyses of processes widely used in chemical industry. However, proper attention has to be paid to the construction and use of mathematical models in order to develop a suitable software solution.

This study explores determinants of capital structure and also investigates whether the financial tsunami has an impact on the capital structure in 38 Taiwan’s chemical companies. The quarterly data covering the period 2000-2010 are sourced from Taiwan Economic Journal (TEJ) Database whose data are classified to three categories, the whole companies in the industry, the listed companies and the OTC companies. By using the panel data regression, we find that the financial tsunami has a significantly negative impact on the long-term debt ratio of Taiwan’s chemical industry in both whole industry level and listed company level. The company size is significantly positively related to the financial leverage in all the three levels. The profitability is significantly negatively related to the leverage in both whole industry level and listed company level. Also, the sales growth is significantly positively related to the leverage in both whole industry level and listed company level. Second, the empirical result also finds that the asset collateral value is significantly negatively related to the leverage in both whole industry level and listed company level, but significantly positively in OTC company level. Besides, the management shareholding ratio is significantly negatively related to the leverage in all the three levels. However, in this study, the tax shields and non-debt tax shield do not have significant influences on the long-term debt ratio of Taiwan’s chemical industry in all the three levels.

Chapter 6 - Protecting Critical Infrastructure: Process Control and SCADA

The method of using loaded and unloaded air supply control on the traditional air compressor not only makes the supply pressure unstable, but also makes frequently changing of the load state of the air compressor and causes economic losses. In order to save energy and improve efficiency, it designs a self-tuning PID control system based on parameter fuzzy to complete the transformation of the traditional air compressor. It uses C8051F020 microcontroller to control the closed-loop PWM frequency control system. After the transformation, the system can adjust the motor speed according to the size of gas consumption, and realize precisely constant gas pressure supply. It can be used in machinery, chemical industry and many other fields.

The paper aim is to highlight the transformation of the chemical industry in Italy, after the declining of the large companies (Montedison, Enimont, Snia, etc.) and the rising of many medium- sized firms that have a good international competitiveness. The paper explores the characteristics of the sector: large presence of foreign MNEs, strong links between chemical industry and industrial district productions, high company specialization. The focus is on the competitive advantage of the Italian medium-sized firms, mainly based on endogenous factors, such as product specialization, product innovation and worldwide exports. Main problem at firm's level is the management of exogenous constraints, such as EU regulations, EU climate change policy, Italian R&D infrastructures. The descriptive analysis shows the deep evolution of medium- sized firms: their niche specialization needs to enlarge the company's market by worldwide exports, and it asks for R&D investments in order to become a «global niche leader».

The real-time performance of control network between process control system(PCS) in a nuclear power plant is an important factor to ensure safety and reliability of power plant. Ethernet network is widely adopted in modern PCS even though it does not guarantee hard real-time performance in the non-safety region of a nuclear power plant. To achieve better real-time performance and QoS(Quality of Service), PCS usually uses switched Ethernet with the priority feature, which is based on the IEEE 802.1Q/p protocol. However, the IEEE 802.1Q/p protocol also has a priority inversion problem when transmission of a higher-priority frame is requested during transmission of a lower-priority frame. To resolve this problem, this paper proposes Preemptive Switched Ethernet(PSE) that is based on the IEEE 802.1Q/p protocol with a preemption mechanism. This paper shows that PSE provides better real-time performance than the standard IEEE 802.1Q/p protocol especially when non-real-time and real-time traffics are mixed together. This paper also implements PSE controller using the FPGA (Virtex-4) and MicroBlaze processor. From the implementation results, PSE controller shows an improved latency and jitters of transmission period compare to the normal Ethernet controller. Experiment result shows that the jitter of real-time packet is 50% less than the standard 802.1Q/p protocol.

Modern transient analysis methods are approximate, which leads to significant control errors. It is shown that improving the accuracy and speed of automatic control systems, and providing optimal operation is possible using the quadrature method for the transient analysis. The fourth-order automatic control system, which is described by a linear differential equation with real and compatible complex roots was investigated. The influence of these roots on the first-quadrature time constants is shown. The methods for determining the first-quadrature time constants and transient analysis accuracy were described. The time constant, which is a multiplier at the first derivative of the first quadrature can be determined by the minimum space between the real RFR of the system and RFR of the first quadrature. The second quadrature can be determined by the difference between the real RFR and RFR, identified by the first quadrature. It is shown that for the fourth-order ACS, transition frequency of the second quadrature RFR is equal to the first quadrature frequency. Since the second quadrature is negligible, it can be neglected in many practical tasks. The main advantage of the quadrature method is the transient analysis using analytical formulas, used for second-order differential equations. Using the quadrature method is especially valuable for the software support of modern computer-integrated process control systems, in which close and complex method of inverse Laplace transform is typically used. Investigating the high-order control systems with delay and using the method for calculating the optimal regulator settings are practically important.

The non-weighing lysimeter system in the Minqin desert areas was firstly used in the 1970 s, and mainly performed the orientation research on the water consumption by the transpiration of several desert plants and the evaporation on the surface of sand, which aimed to provide the theoretical guide for the selection of afforestation density and the utilization of sand and water in Chinese sand areas. At present the system has been running for 30 years, most of the lysimeters showed the jam and leakage phenomenon, and the observation was by conventional artificial means. All the factors seriously affected the accuracy of the data monitoring. However, on the basis of the non-weighing lysimeter system structure and its testing principle, the evapotranspiration area could be extended, the capacity of testing soil column could be increased, more real natural environment conditions could be simulated and the limitations of weighing lysimeter could be overcome, in sum, the lysimeter's application field and adaptability were extended. Owing to the problems of low automation, and lack of scalability and reliability, the non-weighed lysimeter monitoring and control system in the Minqin desert areas has been retrofitted to improve its performance based on structure characteristics. The non-weighed lysimeter proving ground of 720 m2was designed in Minqin sand areas, where 30 individual lysimeters (120 cm×120 cm) of desert plant were upgraded and 12 small groups of desert plant lysimeters (400 cm×400 cm) were expanded and built, at the same time, the lysimeter groups in different types could be used to carry out the test of water supply for plant under the constant water level of 190, 290 and 390 cm. The lysimeter proving ground upgraded and expanding-built could realize synchronous observation for evapotranspiration test from the desert plant individual scale to small group scale, and the experiment platform was provided for studying water consumption of desert plants transpiration in different scale and its coupling relationship. The distributed monitoring scheme was adopted in the new automatic monitoring system, in which the superior industrial computer was set up as the center with multiple lower machine monitoring points, such as lysimeter constant water level control and water-supplying measurement system, drainage measurement system, atmospheric precipitation monitoring system, soil moisture monitoring system, environment temperature measurement and control system, SMS cat alarm system, data remote transmission and monitoring system, and UPS over-voltage protection system, and the RS485 bus, ISM wireless communication and TCP/IP network structure were used in the system. The automatic control of the lysimeter water level, water supply and drainage, the automatic monitoring of water metering, and the soil water content were designed, and the atmospheric rainfall and the temperature indoor were monitored in real time in the new system; the system also had the functions of real-time data collection and processing, information communication and data entering, historical data storage, data report printing and remote transmission download, and the power supply system was protected against over-voltage to enhance the reliability of system operation and the stability of data acquisition. Additionally, the internet-based remote monitoring and control system was used, and the users could process the abnormal situation. According to the monitoring data analysis by the regression method, we could know that the errors of data regression analysis were ± 2.2% for the pressure sensor, ± 2.0% for the drop counter and ± 12.5% for the moisture sensors. The research extended the scale for locating observation of the desert plant and implemented the automatic monitoring for evapotranspiration of the desert plant. © 2015, Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering. All right reserved.

There has been a great deal of discussion and literature on saving electrical energy used by centrifugal pumps. Most of the attention, however, has been given to one general type of centrifugal pump application?variable-flow variable-pressure?and the role of the control loops of the system has generally not been dealt with. In actual practice, centrifugal pump applications can be classified into three general types: 1) variable-flow variable-pressure; 2) constant-flow variable-pressure; and 3) variable-flow constant-pressure. The actual type is determined by the control loops of the system. A user who is interested in implementing an energy savings program by using electrical adjustable speed control must select and analyze specific applications, which may fall into any of the above three categories. Each of these applications must be analyzed with a different approach?they cannot all be analyzed as variable-flow variable-pressure systems. This paper will review the three general types of applications which are seen for centrifugal pumps and suggest a method of implementing an energy savings program and analyzing each type of system.

In recent years the need for the design of more sustainable processes and the development of alternative reaction routes to reduce the environmental impact of the chemical industry has gained vital importance. Main objectives especially regard the use of renewable raw materials, the exploitation of alternative energy sources, the design of inherently safe processes and of integrated reaction/separation technologies (e.g. microreactors and membranes), the process intensification, the reduction of waste and the development of new catalytic pathways. The present PhD thesis reports results derived during a three years research period at the School of Chemical Sciences of Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, Dept. of Industrial Chemistry and Materials (now Dept. of Industrial Chemistry “Toso Montanari”), under the supervision of Prof. Fabrizio Cavani (Catalytic Processes Development Group). Three research projects in the field of heterogeneous acid catalysis focused on potential industrial applications were carried out. The main project, regarding the conversion of lignocellulosic materials to produce monosaccharides (important intermediates for production of biofuels and bioplatform molecules) was financed and carried out in collaboration with the Italian oil company eni S.p.A. (Istituto eni Donegani-Research Center for non-Conventional Energies, Novara, Italy) The second and third academic projects dealt with the development of green chemical processes for fine chemicals manufacturing. In particular, (a) the condensation reaction between acetone and ammonia to give triacetoneamine (TAA), and (b) the Friedel-Crafts acylation of phenol with benzoic acid were investigated.

The paper addresses the development and implementation of a distributed and hierarchized control system for processes in food industry. More precisely, the wheat grinding and bread production processes that take place at the Mill and bread factory Calafat, Romania, are envisaged. Two solutions based on the DCS/SCADA (Distributed Control System / Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) architecture are proposed. The first DCS-SCADA structure is a hierarchical monitoring and control system based on digital controllers, data acquisition and computer system. The second structure is a DCS-SCADA hierarchical monitoring and control system based on compact data acquisition and control systems. The configuration and the functionality of the DCS levels are described. Also, the communication interface between the primary control loops and the superior hierarchic levels is presented. The proposed control structures allow the improvement of the overall system currently implemented at the mill and bread factory.

To analyze severe acute occupational poisoning accidents reported in China between 1989 and 2003, and to study the characteristics of severe acute occupational poisoning accidents and provide scientific evidences for prevention and control strategies. The data from the national occupational poisoning case reporting system were analyzed with descriptive methods. (1) There were 506 acute severe occupational poisoning accidents for 15 years with 4 657 workers poisoned. The total poisoning rate was 54.8%, and the total mortality was 16.5%. The average poisoning age was (31.9 +/- 9.8) years old and the average death age was (33.7 +/- 10.3) years old. The poisoning accidents occurred more in men than in women. (2) There were more than 112 chemicals which caused these poisoning accidents. Most of the accidents caused by hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, benzene and homologs, metal and metalloid and carbon dioxide, and the types of chemicals varied in different types of industries. (3) The accidents mainly occurred in chemical industry, manufacture, water disposal industry, mining and construction industry, and the risk was higher in some jobs than others, such as cleanout, machine maintenance and repair, production, mine and digging. The accidents occurred more frequently from April to August each year. (1) The control over the severe acute occupational poisoning is urgent. (2) The trend of the characteristics of severe acute occupational poisoning accidents is centralized in the high risk industries, poisons and jobs. (3) The characteristics of the accidents varied in different types of industries. (4) It is the key point to strengthen the supervision on poisoning.