Energy Optimization in Petrochemical Processes

Whether you believe that there is a connection between CO
₂
and global warming or not, reducing energy consumption by improving operating efficiency has the additional benefit of prolonging our natural resources, reducing production costs and postponing investment required in infrastructure such as generating stations, transmission lines, etc. when the same work can be done with less energy.Induction motors are a logical target since they are the primary machine in use and account for the vast majority of industrial loads. Loads driven by induction motors consume more than half of the electrical energy generated. A small improvement in efficiency has a pronounced effect on overall energy consumption.When a process has a range of operating points, adjustable speed drives (ASD) are often employed in order to realize energy savings based on the affinity laws. While this in itself saves substantial amounts of energy, it can be further optimized with flux vector control and other techniques which we will discuss in more detail. This paper will go into detail on the topic of energy optimal control which results in additional energy savings.