Troubleshooting Process Plant Control A Practical Guide to Avoiding and Correcting Mistakes

• Expands on the first book with the addition of five new chapters as well as new troubleshooting examples
• Written for the working operator and engineer, with straightforward instruction not hinged on complex math
• Includes real-life examples of control problems that commonly arise and how to fix them
• Emphasizes single and well-established process engineering principles that will help working engineers and operators switch manual control loops to automatic control

Norman Lieberman is a practicing Chemical Engineer with 54 years of design, operation, and troubleshooting experience. His clients are refineries and petrochemical plants. He is well known in the process industry for instructing technical process seminars, primarily for refineries and petrochemical plants.

Preface to the Second Edition ix

Introduction—2nd Edition xi

About The Author xiii

Chapter 1 Learning from Experience 1

Chapter 2 Process Control Parameter Measurement 11

Chapter 3 Dependent and Independent Variables 25

Chapter 4 Binary Distillation of Pure Components 33

Chapter 5 Distillation Tower Pressure Control 41

Chapter 6 Control of Aqueous Phase (Waste Water) Strippers 55

Chapter 7 Pressure Control in Multicomponent Systems 61

Chapter 8 Optimizing Fractionation Efficiency by Temperature Profile 69

Chapter 9 Analyzer Process Control 77

Chapter 10 Fired Heater Combustion Air Control 87

Chapter 11 Using Existing Controls to Promote Energy Efficiency 99

Chapter 12 Sizing Process Control Valves 107

Chapter 13 Control Valve Position on Instrument Air Failure 115

Chapter 14 Override and Split-Range Process Control 125

Chapter 15 Vacuum System Pressure Control 131

Chapter 16 Reciprocating Compressors 143

Chapter 17 Centrifugal Compressor Surge versus Motor Over-Amping 151

Chapter 18 Controlling Centrifugal Pumps 159

Chapter 19 Steam Turbine Control 167

Chapter 20 Steam and Condensate Control 179

Chapter 21 Control of Process Reactions 191

Chapter 22 Function of the Process Control Engineer 205

Chapter 23 Steam Quality and Moisture Content 215

Chapter 24 Level, Pressure, Flow, and Temperature Indication Methods 231

Chapter 25 Alarm and Trip Design for Safe Plant Operations 247

Chapter 26 Inverted Response of Process Parameters 257

Chapter 27 Nonlinear Process Responses 267

Chapter 28 Control Malfunction Stories 275

About My Seminars 283

Process Control Nomenclature used in Petroleum Refineries and Petrochemical Plants 287

Further Readings on Troubleshooting Process Controls 293

The Norm Lieberman Video Library of Troubleshooting Process Operations 295

Index 297

Afterword 319

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