Advanced Control and Optimization of a Natural Gas Plant - Benefits of the New Regulatory Control Strategy

Abstract This paper presents the design of a new regulatory control strategy, as part of an advanced control and optmization project, for the natural gas processing plant of PETROBRAS (UPGN-III in Portuguese symbols) in Rio Grande do Norte. This phase of the implementation of the advanced control and optimization system (multivariable model based constraint control) allowed an increase of about 4% in the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) per charge and composition, this is the principal product of this unit, representing an income of US 1.300.000 a year. The new control system also reduced in 30% the number of unscheduled unit's downtime due to an improvement of its stability.