Trends in Advanced Process Control in the polyolefin

Trends in Advanced Process Control in the polyolefin industry Nordic Process Control Workshop, 29 -30 January 2009, Telemark by Bjørn Glemmestad, Borealis Thanks to colleagues: Ketil S. Andersen Staffan Haugwitz © 2008 Borealis AG Øivind Moen

Outline • Purpose of presentation • Polyolefin industry, Borealis and a typical polyolefin plant • What is meant by APC (Advanced Process Control) in this presentation • Status and trends • MPC • Real Time Optimization (RTO) • Transition management • Planning and scheduling © 2008 Borealis AG • Summary and suggested focus areas for further research 2 9/16/2020 Presentation title

Purpose of presentation Background • Different industries develop differently with respect to Advanced Process Control Purpose • Present status, trends and to suggest research needs within APC in the polyolefin industry © 2008 Borealis AG • In addition: Recruitment 3 9/16/2020 Presentation title

Polyolefin chain © 2008 Borealis AG Monomer (olefins) Ethylene or propylene 4 9/16/2020 Presentation title Polymer (polyolefins) Polyethylene or polypropylene

Providing solutions in Polyolefins infrastructure Copyright © 2008 Borealis AG automotive 5 9/16/2020 Presentation title advanced packaging

Borealis: where we are Borealis locations Production Plants: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Finland, Germany, Italy, Sweden, United States Innovation Centres: Austria, Finland, Sweden Customer Service Centres: Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Sweden, Turkey, United States Head Office: Austria Borouge locations Production Plant: Ruwais (UAE) Customer Service Centres: Abu Dhabi (UAE), China, India, Singapore Sales Offices: Abu Dhabi (UAE), Australia, China, Lebanon, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia Copyright © 2008 Borealis AG Head Offices: Abu Dhabi (UAE), Singapore 6 9/16/2020 Presentation title

Investment in innovation capability • Expansion at our International Innovation Centre in Linz, Austria • New facilities at the Innovation Centre in Porvoo, Finland • Borstar® PP pilot plant in Schwechat, Austria • Investment in a new Innovation Centre in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Copyright © 2008 Borealis AG • Continue to leverage capacities at our Innovation Centre Stenungsund, Sweden 7 9/16/2020 Presentation title

Example of a polyolefin plant Loop reactor 1 st Gas phase reactor 2 nd Gas phase reactor Ethylene feed C 2 feed Hydrogen feed H 2 feed Propylene feed C 3 feed C 2 feed H 2 feed C 3 feed To dry-end part of plant Catalyst feed Prepolymerisation reactor © 2008 Borealis AG Monomer 8 9/16/2020 Presentation title Polymer

What is meant by APC in this presentation Planning/scheduling • MPC • RTO Real Time Optimization • Transition management • Planning and scheduling Supervisory control Regulatory control © 2008 Borealis AG Plant 9 9/16/2020 Presentation title

Status and trends within MPC (PO industry) Status • Linear MPC only in limited use (and fading out? ) • Nonlinear MPC used (50%? ) • Control of production rate, reactor conditions and partly product quality • Mainly commercial MPC. Borealis use in-house technology Trends • Increased use of nonlinear MPC in reactor area • APC/MPC in recovery area? Challenges • Robust nonlinear MPC © 2008 Borealis AG • Understanding product quality control 10 9/16/2020 Presentation title

Status and trends within RTO What could it be? • Minimize production cost Status • Practically not used, but probably some scarce tests Gas losses Trends Recovery section Feed • Hopefully some projects during the next 5 -10 years Product Total variable cost Cost of monomer loss Cost Catalyst cost © 2008 Borealis AG Purge 11 9/16/2020 Presentation title • Possible that ‘simplified’ methods will be developed Challenges • More complex modeling compared to MPC • Modeling of constraints and understanding of quality aspects

Status and trends within transition management Product B Status • Commercial products for automated transitions exists. • (Semi-) commercial products to find optimal transition off-line exists. • Some industrial implementations, but not very common © 2008 Borealis AG • Incentive to reduce transition costs, but this can be done in many ways 12 9/16/2020 Presentation title H 2 Product A Intermediate product Hours Trends • Possible that specific systems for transition management get common Challenges • To develop systems that are profitable

Status and trends within planning and scheduling E. g. production cycle optimization Trends • Lot of general academic research H 2 • Little specific products for the PO industry 4 -6 weeks Status • Develop useful systems • Little real optimization • Planning and APC in totally different organizations • Focus is to meet customer demands © 2008 Borealis AG Challenges 13 9/16/2020 Presentation title

Summary (APC in polyolefin industry) • Nonlinear MPC has become common during the last decade • RTO, transition management and planning/scheduling: Commercial products and applications are much more scarce and development is needed © 2008 Borealis AG • Further research to support improved operation in this industry can be: • Very robust nonlinear MPC and better understanding of quality control • Development of efficient methods for economic optimization of operation • Develop useful tools to optimize scheduling and planning 14 9/16/2020 Presentation title

We have one or more vacant positions for the right persons… © 2008 Borealis AG Thanks for your attention! 15 9/16/2020 Presentation title

End of presentation Presenter Name(s) Date © 2008 Borealis AG The information contained herein is to our knowledge accurate and reliable as of the date of publication. Borealis extends no warranties and makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained herein, and assumes no responsibility regarding the consequences of its use or for any printing errors. 16 9/16/2020 Presentation title