october 2017 Issue 916

The Chemical Engineer

NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE PROCESS INDUSTRIES, BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE INSTITUTION OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS

THE NIGHT’S WATCH

Who is running your plant at 3am?

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A review and preview of Joan Cordiner shares
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PAGE 29 PAGE 32 ito PAGE 35 PAGE 46
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 viewpoint process automation

Tune Your PID Loops!

Putting the ‘manual’ into automatic control

SAM DHALIWAL
CONSULTANT, IPCOS

“W
HO looks after PID tuning at your site?” This is When a new plant is commissioned, it’s quite common to see
a question I often ask many professionals. The default PID tuning parameters implemented in several of the PID
answers vary from a definitive department, to loops. I once visited a newly-commissioned plant and was told
“maintenance department”, “instrumentation department”, or that the engineering contractor had only tuned 10% of the PID
“don’t know”. The replies almost always suggest to me that controllers, the rest had default parameters that came with the
there is not enough attention paid to this important but generally distributed control system (DCS). I have since learned that this is
forgotten layer of automation. quite a common occurrence. Whilst these defaults may work in
PID (proportional-integral-derivative) controllers still form many loops, they are not optimised for best performance. Over the
the backbone of automatic control systems in refineries, (petro) years, the poor tuning will manifest in the form of unstable opera-
chemical installations, power plants and numerous other tion, at which time the PID tuning may get rectified. Good practice
processes. The success of PID schemes lies in the simplicity of their would be to ensure that while a new plant is being commissioned,
implementation, reliability of the hardware, and the stabilising the PID tuning is reviewed and optimised for best performance.
effect on processes. It is, however, necessary to enter values for P, I This action early in the life cycle of the plant will ensure stable
and D – referred to as tuning parameters – to make PID controllers performance of PID loops at a variety of operating conditions
function in a stable and efficient manner. as well as reduced wear and tear on valves, actuators and other
equipment.

PID Loops What happens if you don’t

Proportional integral and derivative (PID) loops are The cost of poor tuning can be demonstrated by a simple, real-
a basic layer of process automation in the form of life example on a demethaniser column that feeds a downstream
an equation, implemented normally in a distributed debutaniser column (see Figure 1).
control system (DCS). The flow through a pipe with a The temperature controller on the demethaniser was tuned
valve can be set to a desired value because a PID loop is poorly, which meant that more light material escaped to the
working in the background to measure the actual flow debutaniser, causing high pressure, which then resulted in
(process value, or PV) and compare it to the desired value poor recovery of condensate (the valuable product). Tuning this
(setpoint or SP) and automatically adjust the valve opening temperature controller correctly led to immediate results, the
(output or OP) to maintain the flow at the desired value. trends in Figure 2 showing a stark change.
This configuration is called a “flow loop”. Other config- Another example is of a sour gas network, with multiple flow
urations that set the temperature and pressure would controllers on the same process line. Figure 3 shows three sour gas
be referred to as “temperature loop” or “pressure loop”. flows in parallel. These flows were operated in manual mode (ie
The P, I and D parameters can be adjusted or “tuned” in the valve output was changed by the operator rather than auto-
the DCS to obtain a stable and fast response to a change matically by the PID loop) ever since the plant was commissioned
in the desired value or the impact of disturbances which because if they were inserted in PID AUTO (ie the PID loop would
may impact the PV. For the PID loop to behave in a stable automatically adjust the valve output) mode, they would oscil-
manner, it is essential to set the correct P, I, and D param- late (ie the valve opens and close very quickly) and cause a major
eters and calculating them is not always straightforward. process disturbance.
The PID loop is essential to set desired values for various Tuning these interacting flow loops with an appropriate software
process parameters such as flows, temperatures and pres- tool such as INCA AptiTune, that can handle multiple, interacting
sures, so the process may operate at target conditions. PID loops allowed plant operators to operate them in AUTO mode,
resulting in improved process performance. The operators are

OCTOBER 2017 | The Chemical Engineer | page 38

PIDloops DG.indd 38 21/09/2017 17:01

 viewpoint process automation

SALES GAS

RECOVERY TOWER
FLARE

REFLUX
DRUM

DEMETHANISER REFRIGERANT
TIC180
TIC

LP STEAM
NGL TO STORAGE
LP STEAM
DEBUTANISER

RECYCLE GAS COMPRESSOR REFRIGERANT

HP STEAM

CONDENSATE TO STORAGE

FIGURE 1: a simple example of a demethaniser column that feeds a downstream debutaniser column

now able to set the desired flow for each of these flow controllers, process value does not reach the setpoint fast enough), or distur-
allowing them to distribute the flow to the three acid gas removal bance rejection (if the process value is disturbed from its nominal
units, which is something they were unable to do previously. value and does not return quickly back to this value). However, it is
not known whether this tuning is optimal or indeed stable at other
operating points of the process. Taking a systematic approach
Improving process performance towards tuning can help resolve and rectify several process-re-
During my travels around the world, I have carried out numerous lated issues and reassure that the tuning will remain stable at most
studies on how to improve process performance and increase operating points of the process. A well-tuned PID layer is also a
process efficiency. I have inevitably found that improving base necessary building block for further automation such as advanced
layer (PID loop) performance contributes the lion’s share to these process control (APC) and real-time optimisation (RTO).
potential improvements. But little attention is paid to this layer of
automation since everyone thinks that it should “just work”.
In recent years, many companies have implemented PID loop 40

monitoring software packages to monitor the performance of the 35

30
PID loops on their plant and generate reports. A significant amount
25
of effort is involved in implementing such packages, but if they
20
are working correctly, they can highlight poorly-performing PID 15
loops. As is true with many technologies, there is a need for human 44

intervention and interpretation of the information generated. 43

42
This means that the reports from monitoring packages need to
41
be reviewed and necessary action taken to correct PID tuning for 40
these loops. The crucial corrective steps are quite often not taken, 39

resulting in limited benefit. Any technological investment must be 06:00 12:00 18:00 00:00
29/08/2012
06:00

accompanied with investment in manpower on a regular basis to 40TIC180CO (ºC) 40TIC180PV (ºC) 40TIC180SP (ºC)

get the best out of the technology.

FIGURE 2: The Blue line (process variable) shows much better tracking
There is always a temptation to implement some quick PID of the black line (setpoint). The red line is the valve output of the PID
tuning changes by tweaking the P, I or D parameters based on controller. Since the temperature process value can be controlled
personal knowledge and rules of thumb. In many cases this solves closer to the setpoint, this means that the setpoint can be reduced
the observed issues such as cycling of PID loops (when the output
confidently to a lower value which results in improved recovery of
condensate from the debutaniser and an estimated US$1.5m/y
and process value are constantly increasing and decreasing and benefit was achieved
do not reach a steady state) or poor setpoint regulation (when the

OCTOBER 2017 | The Chemical Engineer | page 39

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 viewpoint process automation

Most processes are designed with a high level of energy inte-

gration to minimise additional utility consumption in the SYSTEMATIC TUNING
form of steam or fuel gas. A highly integrated process results A systematic approach to PID tuning involves the
in interactions between PID loops. These interactions make it following steps:
impossible to compute optimal tuning for these PID loops in
a traditional manner such as using rules of thumb or other • Set the PID loop in manual control and ensure data can
spreadsheet-based formulations, since none of these methods be collected at a frequency of 20 seconds or faster for
can handle tuning of multiple, interacting PID loops. The simple process value (PV) and output (OP).
example of three flow controllers demonstrates the need to use • Make a step change in the output (OP) of approximately
a tool to obtain optimal results. In the absence of any tools, 1 to 5%, ensuring the PV response is 2–3 times the
quite often a sub-optimal tuning is implemented by de-tuning noise level.
one or more of the interacting loops while tightly tuning one or • Create a model of the OP to the PV using a model
more of the other loops. identification/PID tuning software such as INCA AptiTune.
There are several PID tuning software packages available – • Use this model to optimise and obtain PID parameters.
almost every DCS vendor has their own flavour – quite often Simulate different results and choose the most
provided as part of the DCS implementation. The use of these PID appropriate parameters. PID tuning software such as
tuning packages is limited due to the fact that the difficult PID INCA AptiTune may be used.
tuning problems which are interactive and multivariable cannot be • Insert the PID parameters in the DCS and check
addressed by these single-loop tuning packages. For the simple, performance over several days.
single-loop problems, engineers tend to use a quick ‘tweak’ to solve
an immediate issue.
Some companies impose key performance metrics – such as The economic benefits of a well-tuned PID layer are also over-
% of loops maintained in automatic – as a method of measuring looked in favour of adopting other sophisticated technologies
and encouraging operations to keep the PID layer of automation such as advanced process control (APC) and real-time optimisa-
in full use. However, many of these companies fail to address PID tion (RTO). However, any practitioner involved in APC or RTO will
tuning in a systematic way to attain their goal of good base-layer testify to the tremendous economic benefits generated by tuning
automation. PID loops, and also creating/adapting PID control structures which
enhance process performance and generate significant economic
benefits. Improved process performance may come in the form of
SOUR FEED ADD GAS REMOVAL UNITS improved energy consumption, increased plant throughput etc,
GAS HEADER mainly due to better tracking of PV to its setpoint or desired value.
FIC130
What is good practice? As always, it is a combination of using
FEED GAS technology along with good engineering judgement and diligence.
COOLER LEAN AMINE
Firstly, it is important to go about PID tuning in a systematic way,
HP HP ABSORBER
addressing all PID loops from the start of your process to the end,
SEP
checking the performance of all loops by reviewing historical data
from your historian or a PID loop monitoring system. This exercise
FIC130 will allow you to identify the bad actors and you can then look at
FEED GAS
details such as instrument issues (measurement error, calibra-
COOLER tion etc) or valve stiction (when the valve does not open smoothly
HP but ‘sticks’ and then jerks open) and other reasons that make this
SEP
LEAN AMINE loop behave poorly. It is always good practice to have a chat with
the operations department to obtain their insight and experience
HP ABSORBER
with the issue. The next step is to look at the interactions that are
present with this loop. If there are multiple PID loops interacting
FIC130
with each other, then look for a technology that can help you solve
this problem. Tuning each PID loop separately will not provide
you with optimal results. Lastly, implement the optimised tuning
LEAN AMINE
results and check the performance over a period of time, taking
HP ABSORBER
into account day and night conditions and also seasonal changes.
Do not underestimate the importance of the PID loops on your
plant and keep them well tuned, build the trust of your operations
Figure 3: three sour gas flows in parallel colleagues and generate benefits that you can quantify and show
to managers!

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