Transient Analysis Improves Reliability of an Integrated Plant Complex

In an integrated petrochemical plant complex, comprising ethylene, VCM, chlorine, and polyethylene production, the availability of each plant is highly dependent on the control systems for intermediate products and utilities and their back-ups. This paper describes the transient analysis and control system modifications to improve the availability of the ethylene production, of the nitrogen production for purging, and of chlorine gas. The economic incentives for simple analyses like the ones presented, are indeed very great, and it is shown that fairly simple models are sufficient. The transient analysis of interconnected plants with intermediate back-ups or storages, is applicable to plant interaction of the supplier-consumer type. The analysis may therefore be applied to interconnected production units with a large connecting pipeline, like in the off-shore and on-shore production of gas.