Exergy, Energy, Economic, and Environmental Assessment of Condensate Stabilization Unit Through Advanced Process Control : Application of Real-Time Optimization

This study assesses a gas stabilization unit's energy, exergy, economic, and environmental performance through a real-time optimization (RTO) strategy. A detailed sensitivity analysis is also conducted using response surface methodology to evaluate the relative significance of operating parameters on the objective functions, such as exergy efficiency, energy cost, and CO 2 emission. Real-time multi-objective optimization is performed and compared with the real operating condition (RO) and classical optimization (CO) method based on the operating parameters. To fix the drawbacks of CO, an algorithm is proposed to implement an advanced process control (APC) system. Implementing this intelligent control system leads to the production of standard products, while production cost, energy consumption, exergy efficiency, and environmental impacts are enhanced. The exergy and sensitivity results indicate that the stabilization tower has the highest potential for process enhancement, and reboiler temperature is the most influential factor among operating parameters. Also, the real-time optimization approach improves the exergy efficiency of the plant by 19% and reduces the energy cost by 13%. At the optimal state, 457 kg/h CO 2 emission is prevented