Project progress Summary of progress month 12, January 2005 The first 6-month period of the project constituted a start and preparation phase with focus on developing a conceptual understanding of the industrial cases, steel manufacturing at SSAB Oxelösund AB and the Stockholm Vatten AB wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), and problems to approach as well as identifying and collecting the data necessary to carry out the technical work. During the first half year, the HIPCON project has finished off the work describing and analysing the cases with respect to plant objectives, function and strategies for control options. The first historical data was also retrieved, which enabled starting "hands on" work through modelling real process data. In the steel plant the HIPCON project will mainly focus on the steel making part of the process, e.g. the so-called LD converter process. A key objective is to reduce and predict slopping in the LD converter which is of relevance both economically and environmentally. In the WWTP the focus will be on chemical precipitation and the activated sludge process. One objective, among others, is to optimise the addition of precipitation chemicals, i.e. to minimise the dosage while maintain a high quality on the effluent and a stable process. During the second half of 2004, environmental and economical modelling of the case studies has started with development of KPIs. The research on social performance indicators has resulted in a report, which will form the basis of the remaining work in this field. Process modelling work started when data became available and is progressing in several parallel tracks, aiming at process diagnostics, soft sensing and process simulation. Both empirical (multivariate statistics, artificial neural networks etc.), semi-physical (grey-box) and physical approaches are being used. The work on process control methods and strategies has proceeded along different tracks, incorporating economical and environmental considerations. Several novel control strategies for both case studies are being evaluated using simulation models and historical plant data. One project objective is the development of prototype computer code integrating mathematical models from different disciplines in a holistic process management system. To start off software development, preliminary user software requirements and internal software specifications were developed during the first 6 months. System design and prototyping was started during the second half of 2004. During the year, a lot of work has been made to start up the Industrial Reference Group (IRG) by recruiting members and provide them with sufficient information about the project and the cases. This work has been successful; the group currently consists of representatives from 12 large companies from various industrial fields with a geographical spread over Europe. The consortium will use the IRG as an advisory agent that will feed back on use of the HIPCON results from an industrial point of view. Old progress |