Application of control loop performance assessment to an industrial acid leaching process

摘要

Control loop performance assessment techniques have been utilized for identifying process control opportunities and in the design, commissioning and maintenance of feedback control strategies. To date, however, the potential benefits have not been well documented in mining and metallurgy. The purpose of this paper is to present an introduction to the theory and practice of controller performance assessment and to illustrate its value as a loop diagnosis tool in troubleshooting the pH control of acid leaching at Cominco's Trail Operations. These results were obtained while beta-testing ProcessDoc -PA~(TM) at Trail, and demonstrated dramatic reductions in variance of the pH in stages 1 and 2.