I'm lucky enough to be on the email distribution list for the ISA Mentor Program where automation hall of fame legend, Greg McMillan, shares some of the work he continues to offer well into his golden years. Greg and Hunter Vegas started this program in 2011 with the...
Greg McMillan
Developing Next-Gen Process Control Leaders
Anyone involved in process control knows the steep learning curve from what is taught in the universities to what is required to safely, reliably and efficiently control an industrial process. Many of the world's foremost experts steeped in this knowledge have retired...
Optimizing Energy Usage in Multi-Fuel Boilers
Steam is a critical part of many process manufacturing processes and the energy to produce it can be a significant source of operational costs. I recently caught up with process automation hall-of-fame member Greg McMillan and Emerson's Scott Pettigrew at the Emerson...
Managing Pressure and Flow Loops on Acid Gas Absorber
At the request of a reader who commented on the last post, here is another of the 11 examples that Emerson's Mark Coughran shared in his Emerson Exchange Denver presentation, Solving Pressure Control Loop Problems in Hydrocarbon Processing Plants. The commenter wrote:...
Critical Techniques to Prevent Process Instability
Greg McMillan, who over the years has worked extensively with the DeltaV technology program and now a modeling and control consultant with Mynah Technologies presented Critical Techniques to Prevent Process Instability at the Emerson Exchange conference in Denver....
Loop Tuning Expertise in Your Pocket
Some of the more popular posts here on the blog involve loop tuning. Our Process Optimization category is filled with more than 150 posts featuring the wisdom of many experienced practitioners. One extremely proficient practitioner and prolific author, Greg McMillan...
Contrasting Advance Regulatory and Advanced Process Control
I wanted to bring additional visibility to a great thread in the LinkedIn Process Control group on advanced regulatory control versus advanced process control. The post, So, ARC Can "Replace" APC? is based on a blog post, Advanced regulatory versus model-predictive...
Does Flow Loop Make Valve Positioner Unnecessary?
In the Process Control LinkedIn group, a question was asked: Positioners seem very popular now, but most lines with valves have flow meters attached. Won't a flow loop make the positioner redundant? When asked for clarification, the original poster explained: As far...
PID Control in 3-Phase Oil and Gas Separation
The PID controller entry in Wikipedia highlights the beginning of proportional+integral+derivative control going all the way back to the 19th century: PID controllers date to 1890s governor design.[2][3] PID controllers were subsequently developed in automatic ship...
Educational Reactor Measurement and Control Book
Last week I highlighted an updated book for process control engineers, Tuning and Control Loop Performance, by Greg McMillan. It's amazing how prolific Greg is, even in his "retirement" over these past several years. I can only aspire to be so active when my golden...
Educational Resource for Tuning and Control Loop Performance
Process automation hall of fame member Greg McMillan has nearly completed an updated version of the book, Tuning and Control Loop Performance: A Practitioner's Guide. It had last been updated back in 1994. You may be familiar with Greg through his blog posts on the...
Setpoint Lead-Lag Question and Answer
I wanted to share this question and answer on setpoint lead-lag, from the Mentoring Engineers discussion group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community. The question: …one of the options you recommend for eliminating overshoot at setpoint changes is using a setpoint...
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