STATISTICAL-DATA ANALYSIS OF A CHEMICAL-PLANT

Modern process computers of petrochemical plants continuously acquire and store huge amounts of data which can be used for process improveme nt. As an example the problem of hot spots in reactors of a Shell petr ochemical process was analysed. It is explained how data acquisition a nd statistical data analysis can be used to extract information about reactor performance and aid in problem analysis. This analysis of plan t data with PCA (Principal Component Analysis) and cross-correlation t echniques shows that maldistribution in the reactors is the primary ca use of hot spots. Solutions, based on improved catalyst loading techni ques, have been proposed and implemented. They yield about 2 million d ollars extra each year. We show that an in depth analysis reveals caus es and solutions to problems in operation of plants, which have been u nsolved for many years.