ABSTRACT
An industrial plant, continuous or batch, is a network of connected processing units that is used to manufacture multiple commodity products. The terms “plant” and “process” are almost synonymous in the process control community. And a system usually means the plant and the peripheral supporting infrastructure such as the control hardware, steam generators (utility), water treatment facility and so forth. Traditionally, process design and controller synthesis are carried out sequentially. That is, the process consisting of connected unit operations, is designed to satisfy the design parameters (product rates, purity specifications, feed conditions) then the control strategy is determined to regulate the process at the operating conditions associated with the design parameters. Historically, this serial approach to process design and plantwide control has been successful, however, with the ever-increasing demand for pollution preventing plants, sustainable processes, and low environmental impact, this approach can be improved in such a way that the issues of dynamic operability, stability, and controllability can be factored into the design and the control strategy from the outset.
