NewLand Control & Associates provide a range of process control services and training adapted to your industry’s needs, to reduce process variability and increase your process profitability. For both larger and smaller
industries, we can make your processes more reliable, more on track and more economical.
Our studies, projects and training courses are focused on obtaining maximum benefits for you.
For many process units, increasing throughput brings substantive benefits. With APC you can push throughput to the maximum whilst monitoring all of the key constraints on the unit. At times when throughput does need to be reduced, due to constraints, it is reduced by the minimum amount using APC.
Many processes produce more than one product where the key product is more valuable than the other product(s). Using APC the key product yield can be increased and the less valuable product yield will be reduced, maximizing the overall profit.
Minimising energy per unit feedrate is another key aim of APC and in today’s world, saving energy is increasingly important. The energy saving can include fuel and/or high pressure steam depending on the industry.
APC helps you to keep the process stable by monitoring all of the key constraints ina unit and taking into account upstream disturbances (feedforward variables).
When a process changes mode, many processes have losses due to the transition time and off-spec material produced during the transition. APC can manage transitional losses.
Advanced Process Control resulted in increased throughput and yield of the most valuable product streams, faster stable operation after a crude feed switch, more heat recovery and less furnace flue gas emissions.
A combination of control techniques gave better control of the equipment load distribution and heat recovery, resulting in less compressor trips, significant energy savings and more stable product specification.
Better simultaneous control of moisture content, maximum drying temperatures and intermediate storage residence times, resulted in reduced off-spec product, reduced moisture content give-away and significant energy savings. The benefits were obtained by redesigning the regulatory control system.
Advanced Process Control resulted in a 2.5% increased ammonia yield. The payback time of the project was less than 6 months.
NewLand Control has developed ARC-t, Advanced Regulatory Control and PID tuning tool, for use in its projects and training courses. It is designed to support fast efficient tuning of various DCS and PLC based regulators.
ARC-t licenses are sold combined with our Basic control and Advanced Regulatory Control training courses and our tuning services. Please contact us by email for the various licensing options. Method: Based on step test data, a dynamic model is identified. This model can have multiple inputs, so that models for feed forward signals can also be identified.
Alternatively for levels, integrating models can be calculated based on vessel dimensions. Based on these models, PI (D) or Dead Time Compensation algorithm parameters are automatically calculated for the feedback loop and optionally dynamic compensations for feed forward loops. Extensive simulation capabilities with nominal and perturbed models are used to access loop performance and robustness to model error and plant behavior changes and to compare different parameter set.
NewLand Control & Associates is a highly experienced process control consulting company. We provide services and training ranging from base layer control to Advanced Process Control and on-line Optimization. Our staff members and Associates across the globe, have a long standing and solid background in base layer PID control and Advanced Process Control (APC) across a broad range of manufacturing and chemical industries. Due to our close cooperation with several trusted partners we are a flexible company, that can handle a wide variety of project sizes.
Our Founders, worked as lead engineers and consultants for Honeywell and AspenTech. As such they led the implementation of major projects, executed master plan and benefit studies, conducted audits, and taught operator training and APC courses.
Our Associates, come from a variety of consultancy firms, with a wide variety of experience and expertise in APC and other areas (e.g. systems and interfacing).
Our mission is to create value for our customers by applying state of the art process control technology, to maximize their process profitability.
We provide our regulatory control services on all major DCS and PLC systems.
Our longstanding experience with improving design and tuning of regulatory control systems has brought substantial benefits to our customers as well as laid down a solid foundation for higher level control layers.
As a technology independent solutions provider we offer you an unbiased advice to realize the best solution, tailored to fit the needs of your process.
We support APC software from AspenTech (DMCplus™) and Honeywell (Profit Controller™ & Profit Optimizer ™).
| Refining: |
|---|
| • Alkylation |
| • Crude and Vacuum Distillation |
| • Main Fractionators |
| • Fluidized Catalytic cracking (FCC) |
| • Hydrocracking |
| • Reforming |
| • Isomerisation |
| • Visbreaking |
| • Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) |
| • Light ends distillation |
| • Sulphur units |
| Chemicals: |
|---|
| • Amines |
| • Ammonia |
| • Aromatics |
| • Iso-Butene |
| • Butadiene |
| • Ethylene (Olefins) |
| • Poly-Olefins |
| • Styrene Monomer |
| • Acrylic Acid |
| • Formaldehyde |
| Food: |
|---|
| • Falling-film evaporation |
| • Spray drying |
| • Fluidized bed drying |
| • Sugar plants |
| Oil & Gas: |
| • Oil/Gas separation terminal |
| • Fixed Offshore oil and gas platforms |
| • Floating Offshore platforms (FPSOs) |
| Alumina: |
|---|
| • Milling |
| • Digestion |
| • Filtration |
| • Precipitation |
| • Calcination |
| Other industries: |
| • Titanium (pigment and MSP) |
| • Pulp Digester |
| • Paper Machine |
| • Air Supply House for Car Manufacture |
| • Pharmaceuticals |
NewLand Control & Associates specialize in Advanced Process Control projects for continuous processes. Our experience and know-how help you select the most profitable cost effective combination of solutions, tailored to your process. We provide turnkey solutions in an efficient implementation project, to provide you with benefits as early as possible.
Controller Health and Performance check: A quick scan of the entire control system’s performance and an assessment of the most beneficial loops and controllers to do maintenance on, together with an estimate of the potential benefits.
Benefit Study: A thorough assessment of the most beneficial opportunities to improve your control system to capture more value from your process. Typically a study will take 2-4 weeks depending on the plant size. The outcome will be recommendations with an estimate of the potential benefits.
Application revamp: Process re-designs often require re-thinking and revamping the control strategy. We can provide the know-how to help you optimizing your control system to maximize the benefits from your process revamp.
Training: We offer several training courses to train your operators and engineers in the use and day to day maintenance of your applications.
Model Predictive Control: We are highly experienced in both Honeywell’s Profit Controller™ (RMPCT) and Profit Optimizer™ (DQP), as well as AspenTech’s DMCplus™.
Soft Sensor or Inferential: We offer you our own in house technology, but we can also use products from other vendors.
Turnkey Solutions: Together with our experienced partners we provide a complete team that covers all aspects of APC implementation.
Controllers lose part of their performance over time as the process they control changes, due to “wear and tear”, changed operating region or product and equipment replacement. This applies equally for PID based controllers, as for model based Advanced Process Control (APC). The figure below gives a graphical representation of typical loss of performance in % of original, which directly translates in loss of revenue. So, regular maintenance pays itself back very quickly.
Typical Controller performance degradation with and without annual maintenance
Controller Health and Performance check: A quick scan of the entire control system’s performance and an assessment of the most beneficial loops and controllers to do maintenance on, together with an estimate of the potential benefits.
PID loop tuning: Our experience and tuning tools allow you to efficiently tune multiple loops.
Soft Sensor inferential model tuning: Soft sensors are often a vital part of a control solution and need regular checking and tuning as well for best performance.
APC model update and tuning: Re-identifying the APC models. Including more variables in the application. Tuning of the application Adapting the built in optimizer to new strategies.
If your process is strongly interacting and a few percent more plant throughput, higher yield of prime product, or energy reduction has a high value, then APC can generate an extremely good return on investment. APC usually requires an
investment in interfacing a dedicated PC to your regulatory control hardware and requires training your staff in a new technology.
The benefits over simpler control improvements have to warrant these
investments.
NewLand Control & Associates, as technology independent consultants, can give you unbiased advice on what the most cost effective solution is for your particular situation.
Tuning and optimizing the regulatory control layer in PLC’s or DCS is a very cost effective opportunity to improve your process profitability. It requires no investment in new control hardware and no introduction of new technologies.
Adequate process control will generate substantial value to your process operation. By reducing process variability, operating points can be shifted in the most profitable direction, without increasing the risk of violating process limits or product specifications.
PID loop tuning: Our experience and in house tuning tools allow you to efficiently tune multiple loops in a short period of time, giving you immediate benefits.
Controller Health and Performance check: A quick scan of the entire control system’s performance and an assessment of the most beneficial loops and controllers to do maintenance on. When combined with PID loop tuning this is a quick and high return on investment track to realize your process’ full potential.
Application revamp: Process re-designs often require re-thinking and revamping the control strategy. We provide the know-how to help you optimize your control system to maximize the benefits from your process revamp.
Advanced Regulatory Control (ARC): is a collection of several proven control techniques, such as feedforward, decouplers, overrides and adaptive gain. For small to medium applications it is often the most cost effective solution for a supervisory layer on top of the basic controllers. It can be implemented in the existing control hardware (DCS or PLC) and does not introduce new technologies nor does it require additional training for your staff.
| - Get the practical skills in order to deliver APC benefits on your own site |
| - Upskill your knowledge and control techniques |
| - Improve your Engineers and Operators performance, innovation and productivity |
| - Receive Expert presentation of Control Technology |
Our courses are full of practical know-how gained from decades of experience in successfully rolling out APC applications across multiple industries. We share with you our expertise, tricks and tips with practical examples throughout all of our courses. With a minimum of theory, and making extensive use of plant simulations, we focus on the practical implementation of control techniques ranging from basic control, multivariable predictive control to optimisation.
| - NewLand Control & Associates offer the standard courses below |
| - In addition we can compile custom training to meet your specific needs |
Invest in your staff! Our trainers are Consultants and Educators who will share their expertise with you to make every training course booked with us an investment in your future. Our courses are designed to be educational, engaging and enjoyable.
NC001-Control Loop Tuning (2 days) - Learn how to tune up all your Basic Controls. Includes Filtering, PID Algorithm, Level Control and Cascade Control. The emphasis is on practical application with many tricks and tips shared by our experienced presenters.
NC002-Advanced Regulatory Control Techniques (3 days) - Get the most out of existing DCS Algorithms and understand Classic Control Techniques. Includes Feedforward, Smith predictor, Non-Linear Control (Gain Scheduling and other methods), Constraint Control and an introduction to multivariable control. This is taught with a minimum of theory and a focus on practical application.
NC003-Introduction to Multivariable Predictive Control (2 days) - Great introduction to MPC based on DMC and Profit Controller. Useful to evaluate Multivariable Control Technology and covers all the basics of this technology.
NC004-Multivariable Control Training for Engineers (4.5 days) - Learn the techniques required: from Design, through Implementation, Model Identification, Simulation and Commissioning to fully implement Multivariable Predictive Control on your plant (Profit Controller based).
NC006-Multivariable Control for Operators (Profit Controller) (1 day) - Upskill your operators to get the most out of APC by a good understanding of the Technology from a practical point of view. Your operators will learn how to actively monitor the APC schemes and to set limits correctly.
NC008-APC Benefits (2 days) - How to calculate APC Benefits to justify an APC project. Taking you through the methods used to calculate Benefits such as “Best Operator Method”, “Mean Shift” and other methods. From how to do quick estimates, to accurate Calculations and evaluations before investing in an APC Project and how to evaluate the success of an APC Project in a Post-Audit.
NC009-APC Maintenance of Profit Controller (3 days) – Learn how to maintain your multivariable controllers for top performance. This course covers active monitoring, troubleshooting, refresh of the key tuning parameters as well as the more advanced tuning options.
NC010-APC Inferential Development and toolkits using Profit Sensor (3 days) – Develop soft sensors, learn how to develop inferentials to support your APC schemes. This course teaches both offline and online implementation, maintenance of inferentials. The course also cover conventional calculations and logic carried out in toolkits with practical examples.
NC011-APC Multiunit Optimisation using Profit Optimizer (2 days) – This course teaches higher level optimisation. Covering both offline and online implementation of Profit Optimizer.
Why operators turn advanced controls off (and how to prevent them from doing so). Written by Howard Boder.
Featured article, in the Chemical Engineer
Written by Andrew Ogden-Swift (NewLand Associate)
Featured article, in the Chemical Engineer.
Written by Andrew Ogden-Swift (NewLand Associate)
Featured presentation, Advances in Process Automation and Control conference 2019.
Written by Howard Boder and Brian Neve
Featured presentation, Advances in Process Automation and Control conference 2019.
Written by Howard Boder and James Caws
Article, Chemical Engineer.
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