DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED CONTROL AND SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS
Thorne, B.
AAL have implemented a wide range of sophisticated applications covering process control, information, and scheduling systems. The replacement of the Taylor Mod 3 with a Honeywell TDC 3000 Distributed Control System (DCS) between 1990 and 1993 provided the platform that facilitated these developments. The installation of PI (from Oil Systems Incorporated) and later the G2 Expert System (from Gensym Corporation) were part of this program. The overall system played a key role in the expansion of plant capacity from its original design of 800,000 tpa to its current capacity of 1,430,000 tpa.
The paper details the background to this program, outlines the design and implementation of the individual applications, and quantifies the resulting benefits.
The most significant areas of advancement have been:
- Access to Plant Data is available to all via PI
- Sand Filter Automation and Optimization
- Bauxite Charge Control
- Calciner Fuel Rate Optimization
- Specific Surface Area Control in the Calciners
- Agglomeration Control in the Precipitation Circuit
- Mud Filter Wash Optimization
Areas where current development is taking place are:
- Effluent Management
- More Efficient Transfer of Information
- Process Modelling