571498

research-article2015
MAC0010.1177/0020294015571498Advanced Process Control of an Ethylene Cracking FurnaceAdvanced Process Control of an Ethylene Cracking Furnace

Themed Paper

Advanced Process Control of

Measurement and Control
2015, Vol. 48(2) 50­–53
© The Institute of Measurement

an Ethylene Cracking Furnace

and Control 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/0020294015571498
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Ping Li
School of Information and Control Engineering, Liaoning Shihua University, Fushun, China
[email protected]
Tian Li
School of Information and Control Engineering, Liaoning Shihua University, Fushun, China
Jiangtao Cao
School of Information and Control Engineering, Liaoning Shihua University, Fushun, China

The ethylene production plant is one of the most important units in petrochemical industry, and the ethylene cracking
furnace is the heart of the plant. The ethylene cracking furnace is a multivariable, strong coupling, and nonlinear pro-
cess, and therefore, it is difficult to be manipulated by traditional proportional–integral–derivative controls. This paper
reports a real application of advanced process control in five 470-kton/year SC-I tubular reactors. The advanced pro-
cess control deployed includes cracking outlet temperature control and feed volume control. This control system has
been operating since 2012. The variation of cracking outlet temperature has been reduced from ±5 to ±1 °C with a
setting time less than a few minutes even under a large-scale disturbance. The variation of feed volume has been
controlled within ±1%. As a result, the advanced process control system has achieved a total production increase by
0.3%.

I. Introduction multiple-input and multiple-output This paper reports a real application of

behaviors. Therefore, it is necessary to APC in five 470-kton/year SC-I tubular
Ethylene is one of the raw materials in introduce advanced process control reactors. The APC deployed includes
the chemical industry. The production of (APC) system to cope with these cracking outlet temperature (COT)
ethylene is considered as a vital symbol problems, which is also the inevitable control and feed volume control. This
of national comprehensive strength in the tendency of the current petrochemical control system has been operating since
petrochemical industry. China has industry. Various APC technologies have 2012. As a result, the APC system has
become the second largest ethylene been deployed in petrochemical plants achieved a total production increase by
producer in 2006 as annual output is including the ethylene cracking furnace. 0.3%. This paper is organized as
concerned, just next to the United APC technologies provide a wide range follows: section “Ethylene process and
States.1 It is estimated that the total of solutions to the problems mentioned the cracking furnace” describes the
annual production of ethylene in 2015 will above, particularly addressing nonlinear, features of SC-I-type cracking furnace
increase to 21–23 million tons and will large lag, strong disturbance, time- and its position in the ethylene plant. In
continue to expand in the future. varying parameters, variable coupling, section “Control strategy,” the
The heart of an ethylene plant is the and some unpredictable variables.2 Even development of the APC system for both
cracking furnace. The furnace process is though the APC technologies for COT and feed volume control is
complex with some problems hard to be petrochemical processes are known presented. The system implementation
solved by traditional control systems, collectively as a control strategy showing is given in section “System
such as distributed reaction temperature superior control performance compared implementation.” In section “Application
profile along the reactor, nonlinear with traditional process control, they results,” the performance of the
performance with the deposition of have to be designed precisely according proposed APC scheme is illustrated by
coke on the inner tube surface, and to the features of the processes. the comparison of the usage of APC and

50  Measurement and Control  l  March 2015  Vol 48  No 2

 Themed Paper

Advanced Process Control of an Ethylene Cracking Furnace

previous proportional–integral–derivative gas flow. Therefore, furnace tube inner

Figure 1.  Schematic diagram of the ethylene
(PID) control. A brief conclusion is given temperature profile can be maintained at
cracking furnace
in section “Conclusion.” a desired distribution along the tube
reactor. The APC system block diagram
is shown in Figure 2, where feed-forward
II. Ethylene Process and the 5DZPDWHULDO
cascade control is adopted. Average
Cracking Furnace 35(+($7
COT relies on feed-forward channel to
'LOXWLRQVWHDP &RQYHFWLRQVHFWLRQ

Production process of ethylene plant is eliminate measurable disturbances such

composed of fuel oil system, raw as total feed volume and furnace
material supplement and preheating 3<52/<6,6 5DGLDWLRQVHFWLRQ
temperature. The controlled variable of
system, dilution steam system, cracking FRROHU
the inner loop is the pressure of the fuel
furnace system, critical cold oil system, &(//
gas flow. The controlled variable of the
high-pressure steam system, and cooling outer loop is still the average COT. A
and associated distillation towers. The temperature-advanced controller is used
reactor feed contains at least two for the outer loop, and the inner loop is
streams: the hydrocarbon and the )XHOJDV
regulated by a traditional proportional–
dilution steam. Liquid hydrocarbons and integral (PI) controller.
the dilution steam are fed into the tubular
reactors. The reaction section is divided is fed into the cracking furnace mixed B. Total feed volume control
into eight zones, which can be heated with dilution steam. The mixture is then
independently to achieve the desired preheated further into the state of As described in section “Ethylene process
temperature profile. The higher the gasification with the temperature slightly and the cracking furnace,” the total feed
cracking temperature, the higher the lower than that of the cracking reaction. volume should be kept constant in order
ethylene yield and the lower the The mixture is then fed into the radiant to minimize the effect of the cracking
propylene yield. The cracking is executed section of the furnace, where the furnace to the rest of the ethylene
at a decomposition tube outlet temperature of the gas mixture increases production process, that is, the
temperature of approximately 800– rapidly to the desired cracking downstream units. Also, the tube reactor
840 °C to control the ratio of ethylene to temperature. In the radiant section, the is composed of eight sets of tubular pipes,
propylene at a prescribed value. In the hydrocarbon is cracked to a combination and the temperature in each branch
distillation step, cracked heavy of target products and other heavier should be balanced while the total feed
components are separated from the hydrocarbons. Upon leaving the radiant volume is adjusted. The temperature
gases coming from the cracking furnace, section of the furnace, the cracked gas is balance control among the eight pipes
and further part of the cracked gasoline cooled rapidly to stop the undesired becomes a multiple-input and multiple-
is condensed to separate in the reaction.4 output (MIMO) control problem. Figure 3
downstream stage. However, the provides a solution in which the set-points
cracking tubular reaction furnace is the of eight inlet pipe flows serve as the
heart of the process. This session III. Control Strategy manipulate variables, and eight outlet pipe
accounts for 56% of the total production According to the feature of the tubular temperatures are considered as the
cost, and the accuracy of the cracking cracking reaction, the COT is an important controlled variables, where TIi (i = 1, 2, …,
furnace control directly decides the parameter affecting yields of ethylene 8) are eight thermocouples, and FCi (i = 1,
quality of the products.3 The schematic production, thus should be controlled. 2, …, 8) are eight inlet flow PI controllers.
diagram of the ethylene cracking furnace Since the cracking furnaces are the first The constraints of the eight inlet pipe flows
is shown in Figure 1. step of the ethylene production process, such as the upper limits and lower limits of
There are many types and kinds of the entire process is affected by the adjustments (ΔFimin, ΔFimax, i = 1, 2, …,
cracking furnaces, among which the disturbances that occur due to the furnace 8) are set in the temperature balance
tubular is the top one. The SC-I-type operation.4 Therefore, the smoothing control. Also, the fluctuation of the total
ethylene cracking furnace of 460 kton/ operation of the furnace should be feed volume should be minimized. The
year is a typical one, which is made of guaranteed. This objective is achievable outputs of the temperature balance control
eight sets of tubular pipes. The main raw through the temperature balance control are the adjustments of eight inlet pipe
material of ethylene is naphtha in this and the feed volume control. flows (ΔFi, i = 1, 2, …, 8).
application. The target products are An increase or drop volume control is
ethylene, propylene, and other placed in combination with the above
A. COT control
hydrocarbon products. Initial preheating temperature balance control as shown in
will be done in the preheating section of The control objective is to regulate the Figure 3. When the set-point of the
the convection chamber where naphtha average COT by manipulating the fuel desired total feed volume is required, the

March 2015  Vol 48 No 2  l  Measurement and Control  51

 Themed Paper

Advanced Process Control of an Ethylene Cracking Furnace

Figure 2.  Average COT control block diagram

Total feed volume

feed forward of naphtha
control Furnace
temperature
Set point Average
of COT COT
temperature COT + temperature
+ + pressure cracking
advanced + PIC valve
controller - object furnace
-

transmitter

Figure 3.  Total feed volume control and temperature balance control

ƸF1
Set point
ƸF2 Temperature
Increase/ ƸF3 balance
ƸF4
drop control
Total feed volume ƸF5 (Constrain condition:
flow control ƸF6 ěƸFi=0, Fimin≤Fi≤Fimaxˈ
ƸF7 ƸFimin≤ƸFi≤ƸFimax )
ƸF8

FC8 TI8

FC7 TI7

FC6 TI6

FC5 TI5

Naphtha Pyrolysis gas

FC4 TI4

FC3 TI3

FC2 TI2

FC1 TI1

increase or drop volume control will designed by Zhejiang Supcon and eight inlet flow PI controllers FCi (i = 1, 2,
re-distribute the volume among the eight implemented in an industrial upper …, 8) shown in Figure 3 are
inlet pipes by re-setting their set-points. computer which sits over and is implemented in the DeltaV DCS.
connected with a DeltaV Distributed Ethylene cracking furnace’s actuators
Control System (DCS) in the form of and different measurement instruments
IV. System Implementation
OPC standard. All the conventional are connected through the cable to
The APC system is developed at the controllers such as the fuel gas pressure the DeltaV DCS with an OPC server,
platform of ESP-/SYS-A software PI controller shown in Figure 2 and the designed by Emerson. Figure 4

52  Measurement and Control  l  March 2015  Vol 48  No 2

 Themed Paper

Advanced Process Control of an Ethylene Cracking Furnace

Figure 4.  APC implementation Figure 5.  Comparison results before and after APC system commissioning: (a) APC off and (b) APC
on
Upper Computer (ESP-/SYS-A)

Control Network

DeltaV DCS (OPC Server)

Instrument Cable Actuator

Ethylene Cracking Furnace

illustrates the system implementation

structure in terms of hardware and
software environments.

V. Application Results
The designed APC system has been
operating since 2012 in five 470-kton/year
SC-I ethylene cracking tubular furnaces in
a Chinese petrochemical company in the
northwest region. Before the APC system
was in operation, every conventional
controller for the ethylene cracking
furnace had to be judged individually from
experience of the operation. The following aims of prolonging life of the cracking improves the stability of the production
of the change in the operation was very furnace and extending interval cycle of process by reducing the fluctuation of the
slow, and the fluctuation of the COT and decoking. COT. We have to consider the optimal
the total feed volume was large. After the temperature profile along the tubular
APC is in operation, the operation of the reactor in the near future to further
VI. Conclusion improve the production efficiency.
system becomes easier and less
intensive. The change of COT before and This paper reports the design and
Funding
after the introduction of the COT control is application results of an APC system for
This research was supported by the project
shown in Figure 5. It is evident that the ethylene cracking furnace. The APC
of National Natural Science Foundation of
disparity of the average COT is reduced. consists of the COT control and the China (61203021) and National Natural
The fluctuation of the average COT has temperature balance control and total Science Foundation of Liaoning Province
been decreased from ±5 to ±1 °C. When feed volume control. The APC system is (2013020024).
a large disturbance occurs, temperature’s implemented in an industrial upper
fluctuation declines from ±10 to ±1 °C. computer sitting over the ordinary DCS. References
So, it turns out to be the characteristics of This type of the implementation has less 1. Wang HQ. The analysis of development in ethylene
distraction to the DCS. The connection of industry environment. International Petroleum
strong antidisturbance capability. The
Economics, February 2008, pp.38–42.
fluctuation range of the total feed volume, DCS and the upper computer is realized 2. Wang SQ. Application and technology of advanced
caused by the branch pipe flow’s change, based on the OPC standard. The control. Beijing, China: Chemical Industry Press,
application results show that the 2001, pp.5–10.
is controlled within 1%. The ethylene
3. Li P, Li QA. Development and application of
production rate is increased by 0.3%. designed APC system meets the advanced process control system for ethylene
Furthermore, due to the reduction of the requirement of the operation of the cracking heaters. CIESC Journal 2011; 62(8):
cracking furnaces, enhances the 2216–20.
fluctuation of COT, the coke deposition in
4. Masoumi ME, Sadrameli SM, Towfighi J, Niaei A.
the inner wall of the tubular reactors will antidisturbance ability of the plant, Simulation, optimization and control of a thermal
be reduced and therefore reaching the shortens the dynamic response time, and cracking furnace. Energy 2006; 31: 516–27.

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