Towards an ontological infrastructure for chemical batch process management

A crucial step for batch process improvement and optimization is to develop information structures that streamline data gathering and, above all, are capable of integrating transactional data into a system using the analytical tools that are developed. Current trends in electronics, computer science, artificial intelligence and control system technology are providing technical capability that greatly facilitates the development of multilevel decision-making support. In this paper, we present the batch process ontology (BaPrOn), wherein different concepts regarding batch processes are categorized and the relationships between them are examined and structured in accordance with ANSI/ISA-88 standards, which provide a solid and transparent framework for integrating batch-related information. This paper also focuses on systematic integration of different actors within the control process. The proposed approach bases the conceptualization through the ANSI/ISA-88 representation, providing the advantage of establishing a more general conceptualization of the batch process domain. The capabilities of the envisaged ontological framework were assessed in a test bed PROCEL pilot plant: scheduling-monitoring and control-rescheduling was closed, information quality was accessed by knowledge description, and an optimum decision-making task was performed. The ontological structure can be extended in the future to incorporate other hierarchical levels and their respective modeling knowledge.