Sirius@Max®: Stamicarbon and IPCOS join forces in optimization of

urea plants

L. Dieltjens, Sr. Process Engineer

Stamicarbon bv, the Netherlands

Urea Symposium 2012

GILBERT DSOUZA
• Model predictive control
• (MPC, also known as Advanced Process Control or APC)
has been widely accepted industrially during the last decade, mainly
because of its ability to handle constraints explicitly and the natural way in
which it can be applied to multivariable processes.

• For processes with strong interaction between the different parameters,

MPC can offer substantial performance improvements compared with
the traditional single-input single-output PID-control strategies.
• The dense interaction matrix of urea processes, combined with its
extreme slow dynamics make these processes ideally suited for MPC
technology.

• In addition to MPC, non-linear model-based optimization techniques

have been applied widely to generate additional substantial benefits.

• The new SIRIUS@MAX solution offered by Stamicarbon and IPCOS

combines the benefits from MPC and Non-linear optimization of Urea
plants into one solution.
• On February 2010, Stamicarbon and IPCOS announced the signing of a
cooperation agreement aimed at providing urea producers with IPCOS’
high-end Advanced Process Control and Optimization solutions.

• The cooperation agreement will facilitate the combination of

Stamicarbon’s leading process knowledge and IPCOS’ innovative
Advanced Process Control (APC) solutions.

• By bringing together the experience of Stamicarbon, market leader in

Urea process licensing, and the experience of IPCOS, market leader in
Advanced Process Control solutions for Fertilizer producers, a next
generation Urea Optimization solution is made available to the market.
• The new solution is called Sirius@Max®.
• It optimizes the operation of the Urea plant minute by minute, every
minute of the hour, every hour of the day.
• The Sirius@Max® solution provides Urea producers with improved
reliability in operation, by ensuring continuous, consistent best practice
operation.
• The variability in key process parameters is significantly reduced
(typically by a factor 2 to 5), and production rates and energy efficiency
are increased from conventional, operator-driven operation.
• Sirius@Max® is built on 3 pillars:
• 1. A review and adaption from the existing DCS controls.
• 2. An optimization module
• 3. A constraint control module
The first pillar: Review existing DCS
controls

• All urea stripping plants are characterized by a “high degree of

interaction” among the process variables.

• Any change at the back-end will affect the synthesis and vice versa.
• These are typical control characteristics for plants containing multiple
recycles.
• The dehydratation of ammonium carbamate to urea and water is
slow, which requires large retention times in the reactor (typically one
hour).

• This reactor hold-up is characterized as a “pure dead time” in the

process.
• As the name implies, dead time is the property of a physical system by
which the response to an applied disturbance is delayed in its effect.
• In the first pillar of the SIRIUS@MAX® solution, the existing DCS
controller configuration will be revised and where necessary
improved.

• The performance of important control loops will be examined and

loops will be re-tuned as and when required.
The second pillar: The optimization
module
• Optimizing urea plants often mean maximizing the production
capacity and or minimizing the energy consumption.

• In order to optimize a urea plant, some basic understanding on

thermodynamics of a system containing urea, water, ammonia and
carbon dioxide is required.
• A prerequisite for every urea plant to maximize production and
minimise the energy consumption is obtaining a maximum yield in the
reactor.
• It is obvious that the formation of urea only takes place in the reactor.

• The equilibrium reaction dictates that the formation of urea does not
go to completion, and hence non-converted ammonia and carbon
dioxide need to be recovered and recycled back to the synthesis.
• Such carbamate recovery often involves an evaporation and
condensation step, not only consuming energy, but also reducing
retention time in the reactor.

• Optimizing reactor yield is the key element in the SIRIUS@MAX®

advanced process control system.
• Historically, many definitions have been proposed to express urea
reactor efficiency. The graphs below give the 2 most commonly used.
• The red curve represents the conversion at chemical equilibrium
expressed as CO2 conversion, that is the amount of CO2 in the initial
mixture converted into urea (plus biuret).

• In this example the initial reactor mixture did not contain water
(H/C=0) while the system pressure is assumed to be constant.
Increasing the NH3/CO2 ratio (increasing the NH3 concentration)
increases CO2 conversion, but reduces NH3 conversion.
• This way of representing the chemical equilibrium is consistent with the
presentation usually found in the traditional urea literature.
• However it is based on the arbitrary choice of CO2 as key component.
• Historically, this may be justified by the fact that in early urea
processes, CO2 conversion was more important than NH3 conversion.
• For the present generation stripping processes however, giving a higher
weight to CO2 conversion is not justified.
• Comparing the CO2-conversion (red curve) and the NH3- conversion
(blue curve) shows that an arbitrary choice of one of the two feedstock
components as yardstick to evaluate optimum reaction conversion can
easily lead to faulty conclusions.
• It is however remarkable that at constant pressure, the equilibrium
temperature reaches a maximum (yellow curve).
• One can argue that the urea yield (i.e. the concentration of urea in the
liquid phase) is a better tool for judging optimum process parameters
than CO2 or NH3 conversion.

• For a reactor with a fixed volume, and assuming a total carbamate

recycle, the next graph illustrates that urea concentration as a function
on molar N/C ratio also goes through a maximum.
• This optimum is also the maximum temperature obtained in the reactor.
• The dehydratation of ammonium carbamate to produce urea and water is
endothermic, so the chemical reaction rate will reach its maximum at the
highest temperature.
• The molar N/C-ratio showing a maximum temperature is called the azeotropic
ratio.
• As can be seen from the graph, the azeotropic ratio coincides with the highest
urea concentration at chemical equilibrium.
• From the above, it is obvious that optimized urea reactors should be operated
at this azeotropic ratio.
• It secures:
A maximum in urea concentration in the urea reactor outlet
A minimum in recycled carbamate back to the synthesis loop
• By applying on-line “N/C-metering systems”, the molar N/C-ratio can be
monitored in a reliable way.
• N/C-metering systems can now be used to their full benefit by connecting
them to an advanced process control system.
• By solely controlling the N/C-ratio in the reactor, the urea yield is not
optimized yet.

• Figure-3 shows the detrimental effect of excess water in urea yield; thus,
one of the targets in controlling a recycle system must be to minimize
water recycle.
• Increasing the amount of water in the initial mixture (increasing the
H2O/CO2 ratio) results in a decrease in urea concentration in the reactor
outlet,
• The above calls for a constraint control system that minimizes the amount
of water recycled back to the synthesis.
• All above implies that urea reactor yield cannot be controlled by simply
manipulating a single control valve.
• Multiple adjustments need to be done to maximize reactor yield.
• Also total and inert pressure controls are part of the reactor yield control
system.
 The third pillar: The constraint
module
• In urea plants, there will always be constraints on process variables,
manipulated variables, and auxiliary variables.
• Some of the constraints may be hard constraints; others may be soft.
• Hard constraints are typically related to physical and safety limits and
include valves that cannot go beyond saturation limits or controllers
whose set point cannot be moved outside the measured range.

• Soft constraints are based on process design and quality specifications.

• Every urea plant is characterized by multiple constraints, which may
swap in time, depending on operating conditions.
• Sirius@Max® is designed in such a way that that it continuously pushes
the plant capacity until a constraint is hit.
• The active constraints are chosen based on the most economical
operation of the plant.
• This secures the highest possible plant capacity at any time.
Sirius@Max® in action
• Sirius@Max® is based on IPCOS’ state of the art multivariable, model-
predictive control technology called INCA.
• It uses a model of the process to predict the behavior of the plant in
the foreseeable future (typically several hours ahead).
• Knowing what the limitations of the process are (safety limits,
operating limits, and quality specifications) Sirius@Max® will calculate
the optimal adjustments to be made to the process, and implement
these adjustments, by sending small changes to the setpoints of key
process variables in the DCS.
Each minute, Sirius@Max® performs the following steps:

• 1. In the so-called “Read” step, it starts by reading a long list of current

process values from the DCS.
• This data is used to evaluate where the process is currently operated,
and to see how the process operation has changed since the last
calculation by Sirius@Max® was performed.
• The Sirius@Max® application keeps a record of history data, so it knows
not just the process values that it has read this cycle, but also
remembers all the process variables it has read in recent history
(typically several hours in the past).
• 2. In the “Prediction” step, using the data it just read, and using data
from recent history, the Sirius@Max® application calculates where the
key process variables will drift to in the next several hours.
• This prediction is calculated based on the process model, and is
continuously adjusted based on the actual values read from the DCS, so
the Sirius@Max® application adapts the predictions every minute based
on the actual measured behavior.
• 3. In the “Optimization” step, it calculates the optimal operations point
where the process should be operated.
• This calculation is done based on input provided by the end-user in the
form of economic information.
• Having determined the optimal point of operation, it then compares the
actual and predicted process values with this optimal point of operation,
and calculates how to shift the process from its current operating point to
the optimal operating point.
• The change is calculated whilst taking the limitations into account, i.e. the
Sirius@Max® application will ensure that no process variables exceed their
limits.
• 4. In the final step, called the “Write” step, small changes are sent to
the setpoints for key process variables.

• It is important that these changes are kept small.

• This will assure smooth operation of the plant.
• The basic principle of a model predictive control system is to use
knowledge of the process transfer characteristics.
• Understanding the relations between manipulated variables, measured
disturbances and controlled variables, the process can be continuously
feedforward driving to the desired operating conditions.

• The Sirius@Max® system directly anticipates the effects that

disturbances have on the process outputs that are controlled as soon as
these disturbances are observed.
• It than directly steers the process to new operating conditions.
• A traditional feedback control system like a PID controller on the
contrary first needs to observe the effects of disturbances at the
controlled process outputs before it can start counteracting these
disturbances.

• Especially in the case where it takes a while (like reactor N/C-control)

before the effects of disturbances on the controlled process outputs
can be measured.
• To illustrate the advantages of MPC over PID control, consider the following
example.
• A simple PID feedback controller would provide quite unsatisfactory closed-
loop response on N/C-control, for the following reasons:
• A disturbance entering the process will not be detected until after a
significant period of time.
• The control action that will be taken on the basis of the last measurement
will be inadequate because it attempts to regulate a situation (eliminate
the difference between setpoint and process value) that originated a while
back in time.
• The control action will also take some time to make its effect felt by the
process.
• As a result of all the factors noted above, significant dead time is a
significant source of instability and oscillations for closed-loop
responses.
• Further, some unit operations contain transfer functions with an
“inverse response”. Those processes initially respond in opposite
direction to where it eventually ends up.
• Single loop PID-controls are in general not very capable to control
processes with control characteristics as described above without
introducing plant oscillations.
• Typical benefits from Sirius@Max® are
• 1% to 5% increase in production,
• 1% to 3% decrease in specific energy consumption,
• higher on-stream factor and more hands-off operation due to the
decreased interventions by operators.
Roadmap to a Sirius@Max®
implementation
 MCF
• SMOC : Shell Multi variable optimizing controller
• Alliance between Shell Global Solutions and Yokogawa for APC.

• APC implementation in 2003