Expert Optimizer 5.0 is successfully applying Model Predictive Control to Jura Cement’s vertical raw mill and cement ball mill at the Wildegg plant.
Baden, Switzerland, June 4, 2008 – ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has successfully completed installation and commissions of its Expert Optimizer solutions at Jura Cement’s Wildegg plant in Switzerland. Version 5.0 of Expert Optimizer was installed on Wildegg’s mills for raw material and cement at the end of 2007. The raw mill is a vertical mill and the cement mill is a three chamber ball mill. Secondary commissioning was completed at the beginning of May 2008.
ABB’s Juliano Arantes, the commissioning engineer for Expert Optimizer at Wildegg, said “The cement mill is quite unusual as it’s a central discharge mill with three chambers, but Expert Optimizer’s graphical modeling capabilities allowed us to nicely represent this new configuration. The solution is bringing good results and high run times”.
In February 2008 Expert Optimizer was awarded the Global Fuels Award for ‘Most innovative technology for electrical energy efficiency’. Expert Optimizer is advanced process control software the purpose of which is to achieve continuous process optimization. Part of ABB’s Collaborative Production Management suite, it coordinates the setpoints of the different parts of the process and immediately detects deviations among the different parts of the operation. By expertly applying MPC, Expert Optimizer is able to stabilize and then optimize the process which helps plant management to reach profitability and sustainability goals.
Colm Hofler, responsible for process optimization at Wildegg, said “The MPC model gives sensible predictions using the model predictive control philosophy, the remaining issue is the lack of feed forward control to account for a seperator speed change. Despite this, Expert Optimizer is working well and the tendency of the returns prediction and the proposed feed changes are very good”.
ABB's suite of Collaborative Production Management (www.abb.com/cpm and www.abb.com/cement) products, which includes Expert Optimizer, Knowledge Manager and SpectraFlow provide productivity improvements to process automation companies.
ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 110,000 people.