Process Control

Measuring and steering plants — sensors to control rooms. How chemical plants are kept on target: process sensors, controllers and control valves, PID control, instrumentation and P&IDs, and the DCS and SCADA systems that run plants and pipelines.

• Sensors — Process sensors measure the four key variables — temperature, pressure, flow and level — plus composition. Learn thermocouples and RTDs, pressure transmitters, differential-pressure, magnetic, vortex and Coriolis flowmeters, level measurement methods, analysers, and accuracy, range and installation.
• Controllers — Controllers and final control elements act on the process. Learn feedback control loops, controller action (direct/reverse), control valves (characteristics, sizing with Kv/Cv, fail-safe), on/off vs modulating control, cascade, ratio and feedforward strategies, and loop troubleshooting.
• PID — The PID controller is used in over 90 % of industrial loops. Learn what P, I and D each do, tuning with Ziegler–Nichols and practical rules, anti-windup, derivative filtering and a digital implementation.
• Process Instrumentation — Process instrumentation documents and wires the plant's measurement and control. Learn P&ID symbols and ISA tag numbers, loop diagrams, 4–20 mA loops and loop-power budgets, HART and fieldbus, hazardous-area protection (intrinsic safety, explosion-proof), calibration and instrument datasheets.
• DCS — A Distributed Control System runs continuous process plants. Learn DCS architecture (controllers, I/O, networks, operator stations, engineering and historian servers), function blocks, redundancy and availability, scan times, alarm management, and integration with safety systems and MES.
• SCADA — SCADA supervises geographically spread assets — pipelines, water networks, well pads, power grids. Learn RTUs and PLCs, telemetry communication (radio, cellular, satellite, fibre), protocols (Modbus, DNP3, IEC 60870-5-104, OPC UA), polling and bandwidth, historians and alarms, and cybersecurity.