BATCH PROCESS CONTROL.

Abstract

The European chemical industry is undergoing a fundamental shift in emphasis - from bulk and commodity products towards low volume, high value speciality chemicals including additives, biochemicals and drugs. The production of such speciality chemicals is invariably batchwise, the process plant often being highly integrated and automated. It is only by means of computer control that the complex operating strategies for such plant can be effectively realised. This is the first of four articles on batch control, and it provides a description of existing systems and an assessment of their impact. Later articles will cover strategies for batch control, safety, reliability and testing, and trends and issues in batch control.