Batch Applications of various complexities are extremely common in chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, food & other process industries. Many of such batch reactors are multi-purpose reactors which can be used for the manufacturing of different products with different batch sizes and different batch recipes. It is necessary to have control systems which not only have recipe management functions but can also provide consistency in final product quality, batch after batch.
Depending on the raw materials being used, the reactors can be either stainless steel or glass-lined of various capacities. These reactors have been provided with heating jackets or limpet coils or both. The utilities do vary depending on the temperatures to be achieved, however, the most commonly used utilities include steam, cooling water, chilled water and sometimes chilled brine. Being a combination of both gaseous and liquid utilities, having different heat transfer properties makes it essential to have specialized control algorithms. Special types of control valves ensure a complete leak tightness for each of the utilities, and separate on-off valves can also be provided for utility selection. We can provide complex solutions to handle heating/cooling cycles, exotherm controls for various such applications. Additional safety measures can also be provided by using emergency jacket draining techniques in case of sudden process demands. Raw material additional sequences/solvent additions can also be provided using options of either flowmeters or load cells with batching control valves.
Special algorithms can also include reactor pressure control, pH controls, agitator feed controls and mechanical seal cooling water safety interlocks. Techniques using nitrogen-based pressurised transfers / blanketing systems have also been included as and when required.
Choices available for use of either single or multi-loop controllers, PLC or DCS based hardware along with softwares to not only provide non-linear control techniques but also to have dynamic graphics, process mimics, real time and historical trends, groups displays, faceplate displays, receipe management, alarm management, batch cards and specialized reports.
A well-developed control solutions not only provide consistency in product quality batch after batch but also additional benefits such as optimum consumption of utilities, cycle time reduction, safety, reduction in human intervention/errors and also record generation. Hazardous area qualification for field devices can be selected as per the classification requirements.
