The evolution of plant process control in Taiwan

This paper delineates the major milestones for process control development in Taiwan which includes the first DCS project, the first APC project; the first PC based training simulator, etc. To bridge the gap between academia and practitioner on process control, many efforts had been exerted through the forums, conferences during that period of time. In 1990, the environment and safety issues became the focal points of plant operation, APC and optimization were regarded as “nice to have” instead of “must have”. Things were changed when FPCC entered into the refinery market. The APC was proposed again to increase the competitiveness. Recently, the energy saving, performance improvement, safety upgrade become the new focal points for owner operator in Taiwan. The simulation, control and IT technologies will be the key components to achieve the new request. Reviewing the evolution of process control in Taiwan will provide the lesson learnt and the future prospect on plant process control.