Presentation Date: Feb 14, 2026
AGSA Abstract
Designing a plantwide control system that is both safe and economically efficient is crucial to ensure optimal operation of a chemical processing plant across a broad range of throughputs. Hence, this study focused on designing and implementing an economic control structure for the nC4 isomerization process that maintains a safe operating window (with respect to operating/vessel constraints) while maximizing economic performance. The study utilized the Luyben et al., (1998) base case design as a foundation for further development. An economic control structure was developed following the Skogestad economic plantwide control procedure. P/PI/PID controllers were designed to stabilize critical process variables and process units and to maintain products quality and product rate. The results of implementation of the designed control structure reveal that it was able to stabilize unstable and non-self-regulatory process variables during operation while preventing backoff in critical process variables and process units. The result also reveals the profitability of the proposed control structure as it yields an annual profit of $19.5 million/yr compared with an existing study which yielded an annual profit of $17.84 million/yr.
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