3.2.2 Douglas doctrines
Jim Douglas (1988) of the University of Massachusetts has devised a
hierarchical approach to the conceptual design of process flowsheets.
Although he primarily considers the steady-state aspects of process
design, he has developed several useful concepts that have control
structure implications.
Douglas points out that in the typical chemical plant the costs of raw
materials and the value of the products are usually much greater than
the costs of capital and energy. This leads to the two Douglas doctrines:
1. Minimize losses of reactants and products.
2. Maximize flowrates through gas recycle systems.
The first idea implies that we need tight control of stream compositions
exiting the process to avoid losses of reactants and products. The
second rests on the principle that yield is worth more than energy.
Recycles are used to improve yields in many processes, as was discussed
in Chap. 2. The economics of improving yields (obtaining more desired
products from the same raw materials) usually outweigh the additional
energy cost of driving the recycle gas compressor.
The control structure implication is that we do not attempt to regulate
the gas recycle flow and we do not worry about what we control with
its manipulation. We simply maximize its flow. This removes one control
degree of freedom and simplifies the control problem.