An online application of dynamic PLS to a dearomatization process

Early detection of process disturbances and prediction of malfunctions in process equipment improve the safety of the process, minimize the time and resources needed for maintenance, and increase the uniform quality of the products. The objective of online-monitoring is to trace the state of the process and the condition of process equipment in real-time, and to detect faults as early as possible. In this article the different properties of the online-monitoring methods applied in the process industries are first reviewed. A description of the systematic development of the online-monitoring system for an industrial dearomatization process, specifically for flash point and distillation curve analysers, is then presented. Finally, the results of offline and online tests of the monitoring system using real industrial data from the Fortum Naantali Refinery in Finland, are described and discussed. The developed online-monitoring application was successful in real-time process monitoring and it fulfilled the industrial requirements. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.