Some Considerations in the Application of Automatic Control to Chemical Processes
May 16th, 1972
Paper to the Institute of Mechanical Engineers Conference, Control in Process Engineering, 16th-17th May 1972.
S F Bush, ICI Europa.
Summary
Generally, the application of automatic control theory to chemical processes has not so far led to the same dramatic improvements as in electrical and mechanical systems. The paper seeks to determine the reason for this and traces the essential developments which seem to bear on this fact. It is found that in its approach to the control of chemical processes, control theory has been implicitly limited to working outside what may be termed the currency of a process. If this view is accepted, two new possibilities arise for the development of control theory and for its fruitful application: firstly, in the physico-chemical design of a process and secondly, in the design of computer control.