Representative Achievement I

Advanced Control and Operation Optimization Technology for Large-scale Ethylene Plant

• Proposed a point-to-point modeling method that couples heat transfer of furnace with in-tube reaction kinetics and built a model of the run-length operation of steam cracking furnaces, which led to the development of simulation software and an operation optimization system.

• Proposed an intelligent control technology using the hybrid mechanism and operation information to realize product distribution and quality control under uncertain conditions with varying feedstocks.

• Proposed a dynamic multi-objective optimization method for feed selection and load allocation, developed a complex energy/mass coupled network optimization method based on the large system decomposition and coordination strategy, and realized the plant-wide collaborative real-time optimization for ethylene production.

These technologies have been widely applied in the ethylene plants of Sinopec and Petro China, covering about 60% of all large-scale ethylene plants with a capacity of 700 KTA. The work has won 3 Second Prize of National Progress in Science and Technology, 2 Chinese Patent Awards of Excellence, and TOP 10 Excellent Cases of Industry-University-Research Collaboration in China.

Representative Achievement II

Advanced Control and Optimization Technology for Large-scale Purified Terephthalic Acid Production Process

• Established a new p-xylene oxidation process model to characterize the relationship between performance and dominant controllable factors and achieved the advanced control and real-time optimization for industrial PX oxidation processes;

• Proposed a novel model of five-membered azeotropic distillation in solvent dehydration process and realized the advanced control and optimal operation of the multi-tower-multi-cycle system;

• Developed a coupling model of material conversion and energy transfer process in the PTA hydro-purification process and realized the cascade utilization of energy efficiency within the constraint of product quality.

Based on these technologies, an integrated plant-wide optimization system has been developed and successfully applied to 7 large-scale industrial PTA plants. It expands the range of operating limits set by foreign patentees, and the optimized comprehensive energy consumption is far lower than the technical indicators of foreign patents. These research results won 2 Second Prizes of National Progress in Science and Technology and the first prize of the Shanghai Invention Patent Award.

Representative Achievement III

Intelligent Manufacturing System of Large-scale Refining Process

• Developed the mechanism modelling and plant-wide simulation software, plant-wide operation performance evaluation and collaborative optimization system, and intelligent optimization techniques for production planning based on operation analysis independently, and realized the self-adaptive optimization of refinery production patterns and maximization of the value chain.

• Developed on-line blending techniques for crude oil blending and oil products blending, invented the blend effect model and related parameter identification method, and realized online blend recipe optimization and control.

These corresponding technologies have been successfully applied to SINOPEC Zhenhai Refinery and Petrochemical Unit of 23 million tons/year, SINOPEC Shanghai Petrochemical Unit of 16 million tons/year, SINOPEC Jiujiang Petrochemical Unit of 10 million tons/year, and SINOPEC Jinling Petrochemical Unit of 18 million tons/year. These research results won the first prize of the Shanghai Science and Technology Advancement Award.

Representative Achievement IV

State Estimation, Coordinated Control and Optimization of Complex Distributed Systems

• Constructed an optimal distributed state estimation framework, developed a new environment perception technology, and implemented a human-machine hybrid control method based on intelligent perception.

• Considering the characteristics of uncertain dynamic systems including limited transmission information, system components failure and nonlinear constraints, proposed a series of control theories and design methods for uncertain dynamic system with limited information.

• Aiming at the hybrid multi-agent network, investigated the theory and method of cooperative control, and systematically studied the distributed control problem with impulse, sampling, and switching characteristics.

   

These results have been published in 59 IEEE and IFAC journals, among which 30 are highly cited ESI papers, including two hot papers that have been positively evaluated by more than 50 academicians and IEEE Fellows at home and abroad. The research results have won one first prize and two second prizes of the Ministry of Education Natural Science Award, and one first prize and two second prizes of the Shanghai Natural Science Award. One researcher of the team has been selected as the ESI Highly Cited Researcher from 2017 to 2020.