Fault diagnosis in chemical processes and equipment with feedbacks

The main theme of this paper concerns the application of chemometrics to the development of a fault diagnostic systems for the chemical industry. In particular the difficult cases of fault diagnosis in chemical processes with recycle systems and employing equipment with feedback are considered. The diagnostic system includes the bank of Kalman filters calibrated for normal object operation and for operation with faults. As most chemical processes are nonlinear, extended modifications of the Kalman filters are used. The quality of diagnostics is tested with incipient and abrupt faults of actuators in a control contour and with equipment in the recycle contour of the Tennessee Eastman process.