PITOPS
Closed-loop PID tuning software that identifies process models from normal operating data, so loops on crude and vacuum units can be retuned without step tests that disturb production.
FocusNo step tests required
Process control software for refining optimizes PID tuning, advanced process control, and control loop monitoring across crude distillation, FCC, hydrotreating, and reforming units. Each refining unit runs different dynamics, from crude-switching transients to reactor severity swings, so it needs control strategies matched to that unit rather than plant-wide defaults.
PiControl Solutions builds this software as an optimization layer that sits above a refinery's installed DCS and PLC hardware.
It finds underperforming loops and retunes them against real operating data.
It keeps advanced control models accurate, so the control assets already in the plant deliver the performance they were specified for.
Refinery control loops face conditions that generic tuning rarely handles well, because feed quality, unit severity, and thermal balance shift constantly. PID controllers account for over 95% of all control loops in industrial plants, so tightening these loops is where refining variability is won or lost.
Crude switching moves distillation cutpoints and column loading within hours, so temperature and pressure loops that held steady on one crude drift on the next.
FCC severity control couples reactor and regenerator dynamics, where one setpoint move ripples through catalyst circulation and product yield.
Furnace pass balancing has to hold equal duty across parallel passes to protect tube metal, and imbalance shows up as coking and lost throughput.
Hydrotreater weighted average bed temperature (WABT) creeps upward as catalyst ages, which forces operators to chase it manually.
Three PiControl products carry most refining optimization work, and each targets a different stage of the control problem.
Closed-loop PID tuning software that identifies process models from normal operating data, so loops on crude and vacuum units can be retuned without step tests that disturb production.
Handles closed-loop MPC model identification, refreshing the models behind FCC and hydrotreating advanced controllers as catalyst and feed conditions drift.
Provides continuous control loop monitoring, flagging oscillation, valve stiction, and degrading performance across the refinery before they erode yield.
Compatible with every major DCS and PLC via OPC-DA and OPC-UA, these products read live data from the control assets already installed, so no new control hardware is needed. They form the refining slice of PiControl's process control software range.
Process optimization software depends on two things in refining: experienced engineers to apply it, and plant teams who can sustain the gains.
PiControl's PID tuning consulting deploys PITOPS and SUPERTUNE directly on refinery loops, typically covers 50 to 500 loops per engagement, and documents before-and-after results.
To see how the same optimization layer applies in other sectors, explore process control software by industry.