Editorial Note

General Information

How to get this
Newsletter

Network Members

Network Internal Organization

Information on Mobility

Joint Publications

Past events

Forthcoming events

Other Activity

Special topics

Annual Progress
Report

Human Capital and Mobility Programme

Online Mobility Newsletter

Network Coordinator Denis Dochain (dochain@auto.ucl.ac.be) CESAME Universite Catholique de Louvain Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Newsletter Editors Sebastiao Feyo de Azevedo (sfeyo@fe.up.pt) Departamento de Engenharia Quimica Faculdade de Engenharia Universidade do Porto, Portugal Eugenio Campos Ferreira (ecferreira@deb.uminho.pt) Departamento de Engenharia Biológica Universidade do Minho, Portugal

The Network in Chemical Process Control represents a joint effort of thirteen European Departments, with two main stated objectives -

1. To provide extensive training for young postdoctoral workers in this important European industrial area,
2. To give the members of the research community in chemical process control the opportunity to develop or reinforce collaborations on topics grouped in three main themes - (i) Modelling and Identification of Chemical Plants; (ii) Monitoring and Control of Non-linear Chemical Processes; and (iii) Tools for Controllability Analysis and Control Strategy Decisions.

In the London Meeting, of September 15-16 1995, The Group decided for the publication of this Newsletter, seen as an effective way to keep Researchers in the area, belonging or not belonging to the Network, informed about our activity and efforts of cooperation.

The job for the Editors is essentially that of compiling in appropriate form for publication the information which the different partners may decide to provide.

The Electronic Mail communications system, the capacity of GETting files through FTP and the World-Wide-Web represent major tools for dissemination of information. We shall keep files of an 'Online Newsletter' in Word and Word Perfect formats, in a FTP ANONYMOUS location. It will be possible to get them with the FTP tool. This Newsletter will also be available in the WWW system. From this page, it will be possible to get into the different individual pages of Researchers, of Departments, of Universities, to have access to abstracts of publications or full publications, you name it...

Please, do contact us by E-Mail. We look forward to hearing comments and suggestions from you and to receiving news for publication.

Porto, January 1996,

The Editors

1.1 How to get this NEWSLETTER

This NEWSLETTER is available in any of the following forms -

a) Internet WWW

An hypertext document can be viewed with a WWW browser using the following URL http://www.deb.uminho.pt/hcm/nlett.htm

b) Download a PDF file

cpcnl1ww.pdf - Acrobat PDF file

c) Paper version

Anyone interested in receiving a paper version by 'snail' mail, does need only to put the request to the Editors, by e-mail, stating clearly name, organization and organization address.

1.2 Network Members

2. Process Control Laboratory, Abo Akademi, Finland
Coordinator - Prof. Kurt Waller (wallerk@finabo.abo.fi)
Address - Process Control Laboratory, Abo Akademi, SF-20500 Abo - Finland

3. Instituttet for Kemiteknik, Danmarks Tekniske Hojskole, Lyngby, Denmark
Coordinator - Prof. Sten Bay Jorgensen, (sbj@home.kt.dth.dk)
Address - Dept. Chemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Building 229
2800 Lingby, Denmark

4. Centre d'Automatique et de Systemes, Ecole des Mines, Paris, France
Coordinator - Prof. Pierre Rouchon (rouchon@cas.ensmp.fr)
Address -Centre Automatique et Systhemes Ecole des Mines de Paris
60, Bd. Saint-Michel, 75272 Paris Cedex France
Fax - 33.1.43.54.18.93

5. Lehrstuhl fuer Prozesstechnik, Rheinisch-Westfaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Germany
Coordinator - Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Marquardt (maq@lfpt.rwth-aachen.de)
Contact Person - Dipl.-Ing. Achim Helbig (ahe@lfpt.rwth-aachen.de)
Other participants -
Dipl.-Ing. Olaf Abel (oab@lfpt.rwth-aachen.de)
Dipl.-Ing. Joachim Blum (jbl@lfpt.rwth-aachen.de)
Dipl.-Ing. Bernd Lohmann (loh@lfpt.rwth-aachen.de)
Dipl.-Ing. Dirk Mueller (dmu@lfpt.rwth-aachen.de)
Address - Lehrstuhl fuer Prozesstechnik RWTH Aachen, Turmstrasse 46
D-52056 Aachen, Germany
Telephone:+49-241-806712, Fax: +49-241-8888-326

6. Institut fur Systemdynamik and Regelungstechnik, Universitat Stuttgart, Germany
Coordinator - Prof. E. Gilles
Contact Person - Prof. Frank Allgower, (ali@isr.uni-stuttgart.d400.de)
Address -Institut fur Systemdynamik und Regelungstechnik, Universitat Stuttgart
Pfaffenwaldring 9, D-70550 Stuttgart, Germany

7. Center for Systems and Control Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Exeter, Great-Britain
Coordinator - Prof. David Owens (D.H.Owens@exeter.ac.uk)
Address -Centre for Systems and Control Engineering -
North Park Road, Exeter EX4 4QF, United Kingdom
Telephone - 44.1392.263685 Fax - 44.1392.217965
Contact Person - Prof. Diane B. Rossiter (d.biss@lboro.ac.uk)
Plant Engineering Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, Loughborough University
Ashby Road, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK
Telephone: 44.1509.222.507 Fax: 44.1509.233.923

8. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Great-Britain
Coordinator - Prof. Julian Morris (Julian.Morris@newcastle.ac.uk)
Other participants: Dr. Elaine Martin (E.B.Martin@newcastle.ac.uk)
Address -Department of Chemical and Process Engineering,
Merz Court - The University Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, United Kingdom
Telephone - 44.91.222.7342 Fax - 44.91.261.1182

9. Centre for Process Systems Engineering, Imperial College, London, Great Britain
Coordinator - Prof. John. Perkins (umeca10@ps.imperial.ac.uk)
Contact Person - Dr. Steve Walsh (s.p.walsh@ic.ac.uk)
Address Centre for Process Systems Engineering, Imperial College of Science
Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BY, United Kingdom
Telephone: 00.44.171.594.6604, Fax: 00.44.171.594.6606

10. Department of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Coordinator - Prof. Costas Kiparissides (cypress@filippos.techpath.gr)
Address -Department of Chemical Engineering Chemical Process Engineering Research Inst.
Laboratory of Polymer Reaction Engineering
P.O. BOX 472, 540 06 Thessaloniki

11. Process Control Group, Chemical Engineering
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim
Coordinator - Prof. Sigurd Skogestad (skoge@kjemi.unit.no)
Address -Department of Chemical Engineering
University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, NTH, N-7034 Trondheim, Norway
Telephone - 47.73.59.41.54 Fax - 47.73.59.4080 or 1410

12. Departamento de Engenharia Quimica, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto
Coordinator - Prof. Sebastiao Feyo de Azevedo (sfeyo@fe.up.pt)
Other participants
Dr. Eugenio Ferreira (ecferreira@deb.uminho.pt)
Mr. Nuno Faria (usfanf@fe.up.pt)
Address -Departamento de Engenharia Quimica, Faculdade de Engenharia
Rua dos Bragas, 4099 Porto Codex, Portugal
Telephone - 351.2.204.1694 Fax - 351.2.200.08.08

13. Institut d'Automatique, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Coordinator - Prof. Dominique. Bonvin (bonvin@elia.epfl.ch)
Address -Institut d'Automatique Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
CH-1015 Lausanne Switzerland
Telephone - 41.21.693.38.43 Fax - 41.21.693.25.74

1.3 Network internal organization

The activity of the network has been organized in six subgroups, corresponding to the areas
of research which fitted best with the envisaged activities of cooperation.

A coordinator has been designated for each of such subgroups -

• SB_1 - Modelling tools and Computer-Aided Design (coordinator Wolfgang Marquardt)
• SB_2 - Identification for control (Dominique Bonvin)
• SB_3 - Nonlinear estimation and control (Pierre Rouchon)
• SB_4 - Real-time optimisation (John Perkins)
• SB_5 - Process monitoring and data interpretation (Julian Morris)
• SB_6 - Controllability analysis (Siegurd Skogestad)

• On the 1st of February, 1996, Dr. Bernhard Dahm (from Stuttgart) started a period of 9 months of postdoc work in Porto, under the auspices of the network. He will work on the development of AI methodologies for state estimation and control of biorectors.
• In 1995, from September 29 to October 10, Achim Helbig (RWTH) visited Lausanne and worked on the subject: 'Modelling, on-line estimation and optimization of batch chemical reactors'.
• In 1995, from 2-6 October, Benjamin Bonnet (PhD student) of CESAME visited Exeter to become familiar with experimental work carried out at Exeter on the modelling and control of a pilot-plant scale activated sludge process.
• In 1995, from July 10 to September 12, Michael Amrhein (from EPFL) visited Newcastle and worked on the topic 'Hybrid modelling of chemical and biochemical batch processes'. On the same topic, Dr. Libei Chen (Newcastle) is to visit Lausanne, from December 5, 1995, till January 15, 1996.
• In 1995, September, by occasion of the ECC95 Conference in Rome, a Meeting of Theme 6 took place to discuss future activities of Theme members - Diane B. Rossiter (Exeter), Jorgensen (DTH), Haggblom (Abo), Hovd (NTH), Perkins (ICSTM), Skogestad (NTH), Waller (Abo), Walsh (ICSTM)). Also the meeting was attended by Dr Elling Jacbsen, STH, Sweden and Prof. Claudio Scali, Pisa both are interested in becoming involved in the future TMR network proposal.
• In 1995, The Centre for Process Systems Engineering (IC London) has welcomed two visitors under the auspices of the network and some of their Members were Visitors to other Institutions:
  • Jean-Christophe Culioli (École des Mines) spent about 6 weeks in the Centre between March and June 1995. During this time he worked with many people in the Centre and exchanged papers and ideas.
  • Cristiano Cortonesi (Pisa), a student of Claudio Scali's, worked in the Centre for two months, with Steve Walsh, on using MILP techniques for control structure selection and made a modest contribution to work in this area. He gave a seminar on the work back in Pisa.
  • Three members of the Centre, Steve Walsh, Eva Sorensen and Jezri Mohideen attended the meeting in Stuttgart on distillation control. Jezri presented a paper there.
• In 1994/95 Mike Papzoglou and George Murikas from Thessaloniki spent 9 months in Newcastle
• In 1994, December, Dr Diane B. Rossiter visited Dr Pierre Rouchon at Ecole de Mine, Paris.

Y. Cao, D. Biss (Exeter) and J.D. Perkins (ICSTM), Special issue of Computers and Chemical Engineering, Vol. 20, No. 4, April 1996.

Y. Cao and D. Biss, An extension of singular value analysis for assessing manipulated variable constraints. Journal of Process Control, Vol. 6, No. 1, 37-48, 1996.

Lefevre, L., Dochain, D., Feyo de Azevedo, S. Some properties of the orthogonal collocation method used for approximating distributed parameter process models. To be presented at the 15^th Benelux Meeting on Systems and Control, 6-8 March, Mierlo, The Netherlands, 1996.

Waldraff, W., Dochain, D. On the use of observability measures for sensor location in fixed bed reactors. To be presented at the 15^th Benelux Meeting on Systems and Control, 6-8 March, Mierlo, The Netherlands, 1996.

Christiansen, A.C., Jacobsen, E.W., Perkins, J.D., Skogestad. On the dynamics of batch distillation: a study of parametric sensitivity in ideal binary columns. AIChE Annual Meeting, Miami Beach, USA, Nov., Paper 184d, 1995.

Chen, L., Amrhein, M., Morris, J., Bonvin, D. Modelling and state estimation of bioprocesses: the use of neural networks and mass balance equations (in preparation)

One-day workshop in Paris on Nonlinear Estimation and Control
The workshop took place, on Friday 19 April, in Paris, at Ecole des Mines, organized by Dr. Pierre Rouchon.

One-day workshop on Plantwide Control and Controllability (Lyngby)
The workshop took place, on 20 May 1996 in Lyngby. Each member of the theme was represented. However, attendance was not restricted to members of the Network so Elling Jacobsen (KTH, Sweden) and Morten Hovd (Fantoft Prosess, Norway) were invited. Eight presentations were given over the day on a variety of topics ranging from the effect of recycles on the plant zero dynamics (presented by Elling Jacobsen) to issues in control structure selection (presented by Professor Sigurd Skogestad). The attendants also had the opportunity to see the energy-integrated distillation column in the pilot plant at DTH. The day concluded with a discussion on the theme's contribution to the proposal for the Teaching and Mobility of Researchers chaired by Dr Walsh. This proposal incorporates new members namely, Dr Hovd, Fantoft Prosess (Norway), Professor Scali, Pisa University (Italy) and Dr Jacobsen, Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden).

UKACC- Control'96, Exeter
Invited Sessions Programme
Organizer: Dr Diane Rossiter (nee Biss), Loughborough University, UK
Advances in Process Control:
I. Control Structure Selection in Control Design Session 3C
II. Program Performance Monitoring and Identification for Control Session 6C
II: Modelling and Control of Chemical Processes Session 8C


2nd general meeting of the Network in Chemical Process Control
The meeting took place in Porto, Portugal, on the 27th (Friday) and 28th (Saturday) of September, 1996. Friday morning was dedicated to discussion of the work developed in each subgroup. On Friday afternoon a poster session, including a poster preview was organized. Saturday morning was dedicated to coordination and management meetings.

1. It is being prepared a visit by Dr Steve Walsh (ICSTM) and Dr Diane B. Rossiter (Exeter) to Prof Waller (Abo Akademi), Prof Jorgensen (DTH) and Prof Skogestad (NTH) in February 1996 to discuss joint collaboration under Theme 6 and possible BRITE-EURAM proposals on distillation and, pulp and paper industry.
2. Also, work is in progress of preparation of a TMR proposal for submission in 1996.

• From Julian Morris, we have received in January 24 (1996) the following call for cooperation -
  We have a lot of work going on with the paper industries. We would be interested in working with colleagues in this area. Our links are with Argo Wiggins, Calladonian, BPB, KNP Fine Paper (Netherlands), A Swedish company, Voit, SKF Condition Monitoring on paper plant bearings, etc.

• From Dominique Bonvin, we have received the following remark -
  It has been our experience that there is a high demand for mobility exchanges of short duration. We personally question the real value of stays under, let us say, 2 months. Comments welcome.

The Annual Progress Report was submited to EU.

Reporting period: 1 November 1994 - 31 October 1995

Number of visitors: