Software:Advanced Control System

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Short description: IBM process control software


The Advanced Control System (ACS).[1] is an IBM process control program originally developed and designed, with Exxon, in the early 1970’s to automate two Esso refineries:

  • Imperial Oil Strathcona refinery[2], a start-up oil refinery located in Strathcona County adjacent to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and
  • Antwerp oil refinery, a major revamp of the existing refinery at Antwerp, Belgium.  

Subsequently, ACS became an IBM program product, with IBM development and support continuing on through the 1980’s and 1990’s, and installations growing to number over 120 worldwide, in some 17 countries.  ACS controlled plants and refineries across several industries, including: petroleum, chemical, pulp and paper[3], mining, steel, glass, pharmaceutical, utilities, and gas distribution.  Some 45 years after the Strathcona and Antwerp installations, ACS is still in operation in at least 10 industrial plants across the globe.[4][5]

ACS was designed to automatically perform process control functions to control thousands of plant process operations, with hundreds of operations being controlled each and every second [6].  This was achieved by ACS operating in conjunction with IBM’s Special Real Time Operating System (SRTOS)[7][8][9] utilizing dual IBM mainframes (IBM System/360, IBM System/370) with IBM front-end processors (IBM System/7, IBM Series/1).  When first installed at the Strathcona refinery, ACS employed a pair of System 370/145 mainframes in order to provide a backup/failover capability, ensuring continuous operation in case the primary mainframe failed. Using a mainframe computer for process control allowed for integration of operational data with business systems[10].

ACS software offered industrial plant customers leading-edge technologies, including:

  • Second-by-second processing of process variable inputs, using various defined algorithms to generate output values, at a rate of 200-300 variables per second.  This enabled operation of very large, complex refineries[11]
  • Use of color graphic terminals to display process variable information, operating targets, performance and response graphs, and process schematics, greatly simplified complex tasks for both plant operators and engineers. Process control schematics provided simulated graphic displays from which operators could readily learn to monitor and control a plant[12].
  • Supervisory services to access process variable data, utilities to report process variable information and alarm history, and track functional changes to variables.
  • Online forms to define process variables, general algorithms, and process commands without have to employ programming.
  • Use of a front-end processor to provide an analog and digital read/write interface to various industrial plan instrumentation.
  • Real time simulation of typical complex petrochemical processes [13][14][15]
  • Automated scheduling, direction and control of the movement of products through refinery components and to external pipelines, storage tanks and ships (Oil Movements & Storage) [16][17][18].

ACS played a key role in process control education, where IBM partnered with various universities (e.g., University of Waterloo, Imperial College London, Purdue University, Tulane University, University of Notre Dame, etc.), to make ACS process control simulations available to their chemical engineering departments and students[19][20][21][22]. In the past, process control courses were very theoretical, and the methodology could only be applied to very simple processes. ACS enabled support of theoretical process control lectures with real time simulations and control of typical petrochemical processes.

Control room at an early ACS petroleum refinery installation

References

  1. ↑ "IBM, Advanced Control System Version 2 and Realtime Plant Management System, ZP86-0320". September 2, 1986. https://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/ShowDoc.wss?docURL=/common/ssi/rep_ca/0/877/ENUSZP86-0320/index.html&request_locale=en. 
  2. ↑ Bodie, G.C., November 1, 1983, Installation of the new process control system at Imperial Oil, Energy Process/Can.; (Canada); Journal Volume: 76, pp. 22-27
  3. ↑ Institute of Paper Science and Technology, October 20, 1989, Status Reports to the Process Simulation and Control Project Advisory Committee (PDF), Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  4. ↑ ACS – A Global Success Story (PDF). IBM InTOUCH, Issue 52, Fall 2020, pp. 15-17
  5. ↑ IBM.com blog by Gerry Kirk, September 9, 2020, https://www.ibm.com/blogs/systems/the-creation-of-the-ibm-advanced-control-system/
  6. ↑ Agrawal. S.S., Advanced Closed Loop Controls of Refinery Off-site Operations (PDF). globaloms.com, Retrieved January 23, 2022
  7. ↑ Special Real Time Operating System (SRTOS), Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 May, 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Real_Time_Operating_System
  8. ↑ IBM System/370 Special Real Time Operating System Programming RPQ Z06751 Description and Operation Manual (PDF). IBM. November 1984. Retrieved September 24, 2016
  9. ↑ Real-time operating system, Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Real-time operating system - Wikipedia
  10. ↑ Yamamura, T., Fujii, K., Fukuda, Y., Sakamoto, T., Kotaki, M., November 1,1988, Development of plant optimization system by ACS. Part 1. Summary, Idemitsu Sekiyu Gijutsu; (Japan); Journal Volume: 31:6
  11. ↑ Instrument Society of America, Advances in Instrumentation: Proceedings of the ISA International Conference and Exhibit, Volume 43, Parts 1-4, 1988, p. 104
  12. ↑ Kassianides, S., June, 1991, AN INTEGRATED SYSTEM FOR COMPUTER BASED TRAINING OF PROCESS OPERATORS (PDF), Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology Imperial College of Science, London, Retrieved January 23, 2022
  13. ↑ Institute of Paper Science and Technology, April 5, 1991, Status Reports to the Process Simulation and Control Project Advisory Committee (PDF), Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  14. ↑ Brian B. Peters,1989, Simulation and control of a wood pulp brown-stock washer using IBM's Advanced Control System, openlibrary.org OL16848795M, 94 pages
  15. ↑ Edwards, R.M, Robinson, G.E, 1988, Real-time modeling and controls analysis using the MMS and the IBM advanced control system (ACS),  Proceedings: 1988 conference on power plant simulators and modeling, IAEA, EPRI-GS/NP--6670
  16. ↑ Brooks, R., 1994, Experiences with oil movements and storage (OM and S) systems within integrated refinery management systems, Oil, Gas (Hamburg); ISSN 0342-5622;CODEN OGEMDJ; v. 20(1); pp. 35-38
  17. ↑ Agrawal, S. S., Scope Of An Integrated Oil Movement & Storage (OM&S) Control System, Proceedings of ISA Conference, New Orleans, October 1995
  18. ↑ Agrawal, S.S., Economic Justification of An Integrated Oil Movement & Storage (OM&S) Control System, (PDF), globaloms.com, Retrieved January 23, 2022
  19. ↑ Koppel, Lowell B.; Sullivan, Gerry (Spring 1986). Use of IBM’s Advanced Control System in Undergraduate Process Control Education (PDF), Chemical Engineering Education Journal, Retrieved July 30, 2020
  20. ↑ Postlethwaite B. (1987). ’Continuing Education in Process Control using ACS.’ The Chemical Engineer, April 1987. pp 17-18
  21. ↑ P. Lee, R. Newell, W. Holmes, 1986, Using an Industrial Control System in an Education Environment, Computer Science (PDF), Retrieved January 16, 2022
  22. ↑ Sargent, R.W.H., 1986, Computer-Based Teaching of Chemical Engineering: The IBM Institute Project at Imperial College (PDF), Retrieved January 22, 2022
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