Development of a start-up operation generation system for a conventional distillation system

Operating procedures are usually provided in advance for the fixed initial operating conditions to be used in the real time operation. They may loose their applicability when the initial operating conditions differ from the predefined ones. To improve their flexibility in terms of operations, this paper proposes a methodology for generating the operating procedures by using plant topological data and real time process data. It is implemented in a prototype system and is applied to a pilot plant of a conventional distillation system. As a result, the proposed system can perform start-up procedures satisfactory for several cases with different initial conditions.