Missed Opportunities in Process Control

There has been an order of magnitude increase in measurement accuracy and controller capability. There is a resulting opportunity to do much more in terms of increasing process performance through modeling and control. Dynamic models can be used to provide a safe and effective means of experimentation leading to innovation. Significant knowledge and resulting advances in process control are the result of using such models which today employ a digital twin to enable use of the configurable controllers and operator interface deployed in the actual plant. Key blocks are developed for modeling instrumentation dynamics. Examples are provided of what has been explored and discovered to get the best control valve response and rangeability and to eliminate self-inflicted disturbances from discontinuities, limit cycles, resonance and interaction. The solutions can be simple to understand and to implement.