(6a) The Evolution of Process Control - from Hand-Turned Valves to Wireless Networks

Over the past 100 years, world history and other inventions have driven the evolution of process control to solve business and technical challenges. From the first wooden float valve device that controlled a water level in a tank in 600BC, it was the invention of the steam engine in the 1800's that led to the start of process control as we know it today. Since then, advancements in process control technologies have allowed dramatic improvements in plants' operating efficiencies, productivity and asset utilization. Looking back, there were a number of major disruptive technologies that changed the game, starting with the move of instruments from the field to the control room in the early 1930's, that allowed refineries to expand almost 20-fold over the next 5 years to meet the increased demand for fuel during WWII. The shift from pneumatic to electronic controls was another one in the 60's, followed by the Distributed Control Systems (DCS) era in the 1980s. DCS platforms brought a step change in capability and established the platform to build Advanced Process Control (APC) applications. Digital field architectures are driving another transformation today. Sales of intelligent field devices took off in the early 2000's because bus technologies can offer the latest advanced diagnostics and integrated asset management functions. Wireless control networks are poised to be the next major disruptive technology that could proliferate cheap measurement devices into services that have previously been cost prohibitive.

This paper will take a historical perspective on how instrumentation and process control has evolved over the years and what each major innovation has meant to the process industries. A review of new process control technologies in their infancy will provide a vision of what the future might bring.