This time Employeneur Joep Bazelmans invites Henk Leegwater to tell us about an interesting Process Control challenge at SABIC in Geleen.

Henk Leegwater worked for DSM (1974-2004) in various functions from process control engineer to Executive Manager. He also worked for TUE (1992-2010) as a part-time professor and managing director. Since 2005 he also worked as an independent professional for various chemical companies in the field of operator training simulators and process control. And there is no way to stop him ;)

The stable and optimal control of a polymerization reactor of the SABIC hdpe is anything but straightforward. Henk will show how a more in-depth analysis of the process characteristics and dynamics by using a dynamic simulation helps to design a good process control solution.

With common sense and quite some experience alone, this could not be done. Crucial is using experiences of process operators by the development of the mathematical model. We will discuss how much control theory, mathematics and their tools are needed in nowadays work of process control engineers.