Control challenges in the polymerization industry
Staffan Haugwitz, Borealis
Abstract. Plastics are used more and more in our world, from the packages on the kitchen table to high-voltage cables and water pipes, not to mention the increased amount of plastics in modern day cars. The polymerization plants are highly complex processes and today most plants have a high degree of automation. The presentation will give an overview of the status of advanced process control (APC) within the manufacturing chain of polymers. It will cover the challenges when developing APC for these complex processes and highlight the needs for future research to increase the benefits of APC and to reduce the cost of developing the systems.
Biography. Staffan Haugwitz is an APC specialist in Borealis, one of the world's largest plastics manufacturers. There, he is part of the APC group developing their own proprietary nonlinear MPC software for control of polymerization reactors. Last year he installed and commissioned the system at the new polypropylene plant in Burghausen, Germany. He completed his PhD in Control Engineering at Lund University in 2007 on the topic "control of chemical reactions in a modified heat exchange reactor".