Multivariate Statistical Process Monitoring and Control: Recent Developments and Applications to Chemical Industry

Multivariate statistical process monitoring and control (MSPM&C) methods for chemical process monitoring with statistical projection techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares (PLS) are surveyed in this paper. The four-step procedure of performing MSPM&C for chemical process, modeling of processes, detecting abnormal events or faults, identifying the variable(s) responsible for the faults and diagnosing the source cause for the abnormal behavior, is analyzed. Several main research directions of MSPM&C reported in the literature are discussed, such as multi-way principal component analysis (MPCA) for batch process, statistical monitoring and control for nonlinear process, dynamic PCA and dynamic PLS, and on-line quality control by inferential models. Industrial applications of MSPM&C to several typical chemical processes, such as chemical reactor, distillation column, polymerization process, petroleum refinery units, are summarized. Finally, some concluding remarks and future considerations are made.

Design and control of a p-xylene oxidation process

The p-xylene(PX) oxidation process is of great industrial importance because of the strong demand of the global polyester fiber.A steady-state model of the PX oxidation has been studied by many researchers.In our previous work,a novel industrial p-xylene oxidation reactor model using the free radical mechanism based kinetics has been developed.However,the disturbances such as production rate change,feed composition variability and reactor temperature changes widely exist in the industry process.In this paper,dynamic simulation of the PX oxidation reactor was designed by Aspen Dynamics and used to develop an effective plantwide control structure,which was capable of effectively handling the disturbances in the load and the temperature of the reactor.Step responses of the control structure to the disturbances were shown and served as the foundation of the smooth operation and advanced control strategy of this process in our future work.

Recent Developments in the Crystallization Process： Toward the Pharmaceutical Industry

Crystallization is one of the oldest separation and purification unit operations, and has recently contributed to significant improvements in producing higher-value products with specific properties and in building efficient manufacturing processes. In this paper, we review recent developments in crystal engineering and crystallization process design and control in the pharmaceutical industry. We systematically summarize recent methods for understanding and developing new types of crystals such as co-crystals, polymorphs, and solvates, and include several milestones such as the launch of the first co-crystal drug, Entresto （No- vartis）, and the continuous manufacture of Orkambi （Vertex）. Conventional batch and continuous processes, which are becoming increasingly mature, are being coupled with various control strategies and the recently developed crystallizers are thus adapting to the needs of the pharmaceutical industry. The development of crystallization process design and control has led to the appearance of several new and innovative crystal- lizer geometries for continuous operation and improved performance. This paper also reviews major recent orogress in the area of process analytical technology.