Page 22 - Design of Simple and Robust Process Plants

1.2 The Process Plant of the 21st Century: Simple and Robust 5
1.2
The Process Plant of the 21st Century: Simple and Robust

The characteristics of a chemical plant in the 21st century were presented by I.G.
Snyder, Jr. of Dow Chemical at ASPENWORLD, November 7, 1994, in Boston,
Massachusetts, USA. In his presentation, he described 10 operational paradigms to
be achieved:
1. Produce a product without blowing the plant. To realize this, we must have
not only a good understanding of the safety aspects of a facility and its chemi-
cals, but also of the techniques to minimize the risks. It is clear that we need
to apply the principles of inherently safer design, as advocated by
Kletz (1991), IChemE (1995) and CCPS of the AIChE (1996).
2. Produce a product with instrumentation. Operation of the plant is taken out
of the hands of the operator, but this requires a carefully developed and
implemented automation strategy.
3. Produce a product effectively and efficiently. Design optimization plays a key
role in this objective
4. Produce a product optimizing multiple variables. Management wants to sti-
mulate all kinds of targets, such as greater throughput, less energy, higher
selectivity, and less maintenance.
5. Control the plant rather than the unit operations. The design and implemen-
tation of a control system that achieves total plant control versus unit opera-
tion control. This will be the baseline for operation optimization
6. Optimization of the plant with continuous technical supervision. Operation
optimization is the objective ± the facility needs to run continuously against
its constraints. To enable this, a multi disciplinary input is required to
develop accurate process and control models.
7. Optimization of the site. The trend will go in the direction of one control
room per site. Site optimization models will be available to select the opera-
tional targets for the entire complex.
8. Economic optimization of the business. Business models will be available to
support business teams to select the targets for the individual plants.
9. Direct customer interaction. Customers need direct product information
based on product models for product design and operation. The ªjust-in-time
productionº concept requires production flexibility, with short-term adjust-
ments of production schedules to meet customer requirements.
10. Worldwide plant operation. Global manufactures will be able to compare and
optimize on line plant performance and operation of different facilities in the
world.

Another reference in this respect is ªplant operation in the futureº (Koolen, 1994),
which defines as the objective for the operation of a processing plant,

Hands-off operation within safety and environmental requirements with a minimum of
operator intervention at optimal process conditions.