ISA Book Covers Reactor And Control System Performance

Jan. 26, 2015
The International Society of Automation (ISA) published a new book designed to help all automation professionals—even those with no prior education or experience in process engineering or control theory—improve reactor and control system performance.

The International Society of Automation (ISA) published a new book designed to help all automation professionals—even those with no prior education or experience in process engineering or control theory—improve reactor and control system performance. The book, “Advances in Reactor Measurement and Control” by Gregory K. McMillan, shines light on the latest technologies and methods for increasing plant performance by improving bioreactor, fermenter and chemical reactor automation. Readers will learn what measurements, control strategies, controller features and tuning parameters will achieve process objectives for a given type of reactor.

Written from a practical rather than academic perspective, the book underscores how control system design can determine the different process responses and fundamental characteristics of the major types of reactors in the process industry. The book educates through a practitioner’s experience and perspective, outlining the general concepts and details, from the field to the control room, for the control and optimization of batch and continuous reactors.

The book’s practical value, according to McMillan, is reinforced through its simple presentation of the characteristics and implications of each of the dynamic responses needed to achieve the necessary efficiency, capacity, quality and safety in operation. It also provides a clear explanation of the PID features and tuning and control loops needed for addressing the lack of smoothing in dead time dominant processes and the lack of negative feedback in integrating and runaway processes.

A Certified Automation Professional, McMillan is the author of more than 20 books, including several ISA best sellers, and the recipient of the ISA Life Achievement Award. McMillan is a former senior fellow at Solutia/Monsanto. An ISA Fellow, McMillan received the ISA Kermit Fischer Environmental Award for pH control in 1991; received the Control Magazine Engineer of the Year Award for the process industry in 1994; was inducted into the Control Process Automation Hall of Fame in 2001; and was honored by InTech magazine in 2003 as one of the most influential innovators in automation. McMillan is a ChemicalProcessing.com “Ask the Experts” authority in the area of instrumentation and control.

For more information, visit: www.isa.org

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