The performance of the FCC units plays a major role on the overall economics of refinery plants. Any improvement in operation or control of FCC units will result in dramatic economic benefits. Present studies are concerned with the general behaviour of the industrial FCC plant, and have dealt with the modelling of the FCC units, which are very useful in elucidating the main characteristics of these systems for better design, operation, and control. Due to the large economic benefits, these trends make the process control more challenging. There is now strong demand for advanced control strategies with higher quality to meet the challenges imposed by the growing technological and market competition.
Usually, the optimum operating conditions are met where constraints are also active. As a consequence, it is important to control FCCU as close as possible to the operating and equipment constraints but without violating them. This study reviews different control approaches of the fluid catalytic cracking unit aimed to control the main variables of the unit and to demonstrate the benefits of the control for the FCC unit.
