Networked control of plantwide chemical processes

The presence of interactions has often made controlling large scale chemical plants expensive and difficult. This paper aims to address these issues by using a network approach where a large scale plant is modeled as a network of interconnected process units. This network is controlled by another network made up of interconnected local controllers. By utilizing the physical and energy properties of chemical process and the information flow between controllers, the network control problem is formulated into a set of simple conditions governed by the concept of dissipativity. This in turn ensure plantwide and local stability as well as the existence of each local controllers.