CyboSoft Will Conduct MFA Flare Control Workshop at 4C Conference
to Help Industries Comply with EPA Rules

January 26, 2017 – CyboSoft (Rancho Cordova, California), the developer of Model-Free Adaptive (MFA) control technology and products, has announced that it will conduct a half day training class at 4C_Conference for implementing advanced flare process control solutions to meet EPA regulations. The training class is open for all 4C conference attendees and will be held from 8am to 12pm, Wednesday, February 22, 2017 at Hyatt Regency Hotel in Austin, Texas.

The deadline for refinery flare operators to comply with new EPA regulations is approaching. The 4C conference is a centralized hub for management teams, engineers, and environmental specialists to meet and learn the new EPA regulations as well as technologies, products, and solutions that can help them achieve the objectives to meet EPA rules.

CyboSoft CEO Dr. George Cheng said, “Flare control is a critical piece of the pie in order to meet EPA regulations. In addition to the Vent Gas Heating Value, EPA has added regulations on Combustion Efficiency, Stoichiometric Ratio, and Net Heating Value Dilution. This makes the flare control system even more difficult to implement and maintain. Sufficient budget and time need to be allocated to launch an effective flare control system.”

Most refinery and chemical plants operate flares to burn off waste gas for operational and safety reasons. The vent gas heating value of a flare must be monitored and controlled to meet EPA regulations. For steam-assisted or air-assisted flares, the net heating value of the gas being combusted must be 300 Btu/scf or greater. When the waste gas heating value is below this limit, supplemental gas, such as natural gas, must be added to assure sufficient combustion and minimal emission.

There are online calorimeters on the market for heating value measurement. However, adding a heating value (HV) control loop can be a challenging task due to the following reasons: (1) There are large and varying time delays in the HV control loop; (2) The HV process is nonlinear in different operating conditions; (3) Multiple waste gas streams in a plant are sent to the flare stack, where stream flows can vary widely causing big disturbances to the heating value; (4) The HV of each waste gas stream may change widely under operating condition changes; and (5) Nitrogen is often used as purge gas to keep positive pressure in the vent pipe, making the process more complex. The flare process is difficult to control using conventional PID controllers. Model-based control can be costly to develop and maintain due to the complexity and uncertainty of the flare process.

In this training class, we will show the behavior of a typical flare process by running a real-time flare heating value process model. We will compare the control performance of different control methods by running control simulations. Lastly, we will present the results of a flare heating value control system using Model-Free Adaptive (MFA) control technology in a petrochemical plant. The system has been running for more than 2 years and is able to effectively control the vent gas heating value above 300 Btu/scf without over-supplying natural gas to achieve economic benefits.

CyboSoft will also offer free consultation during 4C conference and have one-on-one meetings to discuss specific flare control, wastewater process control, or other industrial control applications. Please contact CyboSoft to make reservations.