502 Book Reviews

Chemical Process Control: An Introduction to Theory and

George Stephanopoulos

Reviewer: ODD A. ASBJORNSEN linearization. This statement indeed applies to the present book
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Houston, which has the following structure.
Texas, U.S.A. It starts with an overview of process control, its objectives, the
process variables involved, the cause-and-effect relationships
needed and a general motivation of the reader to dig deeper into
CHEMICAL engineers are generally unfamiliar with the theory of the subject.
linear systems, networks of cause and effect relationships and Then the reader is introduced to the technique of modeling
even more unfamiliar with electronics, instrumentation and on- from the basic physical principles by conservation equations,
line computer hardware. On the other hand, control and transport phenomena, kinetics and equilibrium. At this point
electrical engineers are usually unfamiliar with the physical and very little is said about alternative modeling techniques like time
chemical background and the complexity of process technology. series modeling or step or impulse response modeling.
The reasons for this are found in the university education. The static and dynamic characteristics are analyzed by
Furthermore, the chemical industry is conservative and has a linearization procedures and LaPlace transforms applied to
slower pace of development in comparison with other fields like linear differential equations. The author includes a refresher of
electronics. The reason for this is found primarily in the very large some fundamentals of the LaPlace transform, where the useful
plant investments, where only well-proven control technology relationships between derivatives in the s-domain and moments
will be accepted at the design stage. in the time domain are missing.
These are some of the explanations why traditional control The introduction of the LaPlace transform naturally leads to
engineering based on the transfer function concepts, frequency the transfer function concepts in a traditional way. This is used
response analysis, complex algebra, Nyquist plots and similar extensively in the analysis of transient behavior of first-, second-
concepts from linear systems theory have found only limited and higher-order systems. The traditional extension of the
interests and applications in the process industry. This situation transfer function concepts into frequency response and Nyquist
has led some authorities in the field to criticize control stability analysis is also followed.
engineering as not being applicable to process control. This At this point, about 55°o of the pages are covered in a
situation has also led to great expectations whenever a new traditional way. The author then starts a series of chapters on the
textbook in process control is brought on the market. analysis and design of advanced control systems where modern
George Stephanopoulos obviously had some of these general concepts of adaptive and inferential control, multivariable
thoughts in mind when he wrote his book. He tries to motivate control and decoupling are included. This involves qualitative
the reader to increased emphasis on process control problems analysis of control systems for complete plants.
and application of modern systems engineering and mathe- Only about 20% of the last part of the book covers the most
matical modeling techniques to process engineering. He also tries significant breakthrough in the history of Chemical Process
to present the modeling concepts in a simplified way which would Control, the digital computer. This is unfortunate, because this is
attract control engineers to the subject. However, he does this in a the area where most chemical engineers will meet their challenges
traditional way where some of the less applied design theories in their future career in process control.
and criteria for process control systems are given too much The dynamic characteristics of the operation and control of
weight. Examples again are the transfer function concepts, the chemical plants have some distinct features which may qualify for
Nyquist stability measures for single loops and the frequency a special treatment. Therefore, one has great expectations
response. whenever a chemical engineer writes a textbook in process
Chemical process control has some distinct features which control, to see if advantages have been taken of these special
should be emphasized. The structure of the production plant features. Unfortunately, the author did not quite hit the target.
itself is that of a geographically distributed one. The structure of For example, a general phenomenon in the conservation
the control functions to be executed is that of a multivariable, equations is that they always give rise to bilinear terms from the
decentralized and hierarchical system. Most control com- products of extensive and intensive thermodynamic properties. A
putations and actions are executed in parallel. The economic large number of interaction problems in the processes may be
significance of a control function is increasing upwards in the explained by this basic phenomenon. In the book it is treated as
hierarchy, but so are the time constants. The nature of the special cases for heat and species in a stirred tank balance.
mathematical models for the process and plant dynamics is Another example, the most fundamental and general principle
extremely complex, but the general principles of conservation, for chemical plant and process control, is the conservation
lumping (or integration) transport phenomena, kinetics and principle of energy, mass and species. Hence, the process control
equilibria, make it possible to generalize and simplify. The system should be based on these principles in the first place. I n the
control variables are bounded and the operating conditions book, these principles are referred to only as examples in
usually subject to inequality constraints, nonlinearities and feedforward control and in a total plant control. Process control
bottlenecks. following the conservation principle will always lead to a
Traditional control engineering basics usually do not take the combined feedforward and feedback solution, where the main
real effects of bounded control, process constraints, and non- disturbances are identified and measured and even parameters
linearities into account, apart from some applications of estimated.
Yet another example, the application of the simple
conservation principle for control, solves most of the decoupling
problems caused by the bilinear nature of the extensive and
intensive properties. This is now standard practice in real
industrial systems, where the computer plays the central role. In
*Chemical Process Control: An Introduction to Theory and the book, the decoupling is solved as a general diagonalization of
Practice, by G. Stephanopoulos. Published by Prentice-Hall, linearized transfer function matrices which does not make use of
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey (1984). ISBN 0-13-128629-3. the special features of the conservation principle in the process
696 pp., 184 illustrations. U.S. $47.20. dynamics.