Laboratory for Automation and Measurement

The Grant Agreement for the project Cryst APC – Crystallization Advanced Process Control is signed. The project is launched on December 15, 2020, and will run for 36 months. The purpose of this research is to develop a system that allows continuous monitoring and optimal control of the crystallization process. The developed system will have a wide range of applications - from scientific research to the transfer of technology to semi-industrial and industrial scale. During the project implementation, state-of-the-art equipment will be installed in our laboratory. We expect this project will remarkably increase the potential of our research and cooperation with the process industry.

During the Covid-19 crisis lock-down (March to May), we installed a brand new laboratory exercise for flow measurement. The exercise is equipped with variable area, differential pressure and orifice meter, vortex, magnetic, ultrasound transit-time and Coriolis flow transmitters. It also possible to measure and analyse the pressure drop along the piping, as well as the control valve operation. The set-up is connected to our laboratory control system. In addition, a SCADA system for acquisition, control and subsequent analysis of measurement data has been developed and put in the function. PDF

During the Meeting at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology in February in Zagreb, we presented three papers. Poster presentations deal with the development of a Calibration Model for Continuous Particle Size Distribution Monitoring , Support Vector Machine-based Soft Sensors for the Isomerization Process and Identification and Prediction of the Fouling Formation in Heat Exchangers .

In December we completed and installed system for testing the foaming of diesel fuels at the INA Central Testing Laboratory in Zagreb. Instruments and apparatus meet the requirements of NF M07-075 standard for testing method. The system is equipped with two photoelectric cells, a pressure gauge, three solenoid valves for control, a vacuum pump, glass beakers and a engraved cylinder. The electrical cabinet contains a controller and all necessary I/O communication. Software application is installed to automatically run the experiment and generate testing reports according to the standard. PDF

Heat transfer processes are often encountered in the industry and it is necessary to pay attention to the process design and performance. Designed in our laboratory, we install set-up for thermal process dynamics analysis. Dynamic process models are developed based on experimental data to teach the fundamentals of process control and controller tuning. With the set-up a number of experiments can be performed to determine the static and dynamic characteristics of the process and control loop behaviour. Based on the performed experiments, student now can calculate parameters and optimize the controller performance. PDF

In September we presented our research at the 12th European Congress of Chemical Engineers in Florence. We participated with a poster presentation titled Fouling Detection in Industrial Heat Exchanger Using Neural Network Models as part of the mini symposia: Energy and Chemical Engineering . The heat exchanger performance is assessed by comparing results of heat transfer coefficient of clean and fouled systems. The performance criteria of developed models together with residual monitoring indicate that the neural networks effectively detect fouling formation. Poster presentation (pdf)

During the first part of 2019, we conducted a pilot project for predictive diagnostics of heat exchangers for INA/MOL Rijeka Refinery . On-line monitoring system was designed and established for the heat exchanger diagnostics at hydrocracking plant. Machine learning optimized models are developed for predicting degree of fouling. Monitoring system will be used for maintaining operation efficiency and predictive maintenance .

Organized by the Student Section of the Croatian Society of Chemical Engineering and Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology (LAM) the Summer School of Robotics was held from July 8 to 10. During the first day lectures on topic Industry 4.0 were given to introduce participants to the world of robotics, sensors, additive manufacturing and to its application in the industry. Second day, each of the participants had the opportunity to disassemble and assemble simple mBots and become familiar with the programming of robot functions. On the third day of school, the participants were divided into teams and participated in a mini-competition in which they applied the acquired knowledge. With 30 participants from various institutions, the interest of young professionals was considerable as well as an opportunity for networking and encouraging interdisciplinary work among students.

We spent a useful day at the Siemens Living Laboratory on April 16 in Vienna in company with our colleagues from Pliva/Teva TAPI and our kind hosts. The Living Lab is a unique pilot plant for the development and demonstration of automation solutions . The focus is on the process industry: in particular the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. In a combination of laboratory, production plant and control room, answers to current questions about Pharma 4.0 are given including extensive discussion on application in the pharmaceutical industry.

The purpose of current project in pharmaceutical API production is to optimize control performance during batch production. The main goal is to improve temperature control strategy in order to optimize overall batch process control. The results are reduced temperature oscillations and optimized heating/cooling sequences which bring improved and easier monitoring and control, a shorter batch run cycle and extends equipment’s service period.