Advanced control applied to a gas compression system of an offshore platform: From modeling to related system infrastructure

This work presents the development of an advanced control strategy using Model Predictive Control (MPC) for controlling the gas compression system of an offshore platform. It includes details about the complete phenomenological model of the system and of the software infrastructure developed to support the system implementation in real conditions. The proposed control structure has two main goals: (i) avoid unwanted regions of operation; and (ii) increase stability margins and availability. These goals are achieved by using a zone-control MPC and by adequately interacting with the regulatory control level. Although the proposed structure is general, this work exemplifies its application in a particular compression unit of a real offshore platform. Simulation results are presented in two different scenarios, one to test how the controller rejects a gas-load varying disturbance and another to analyze how the controller copes with an abnormal situation, losing real-time data of process variables or manipulated variables during operation. The good performance obtained in these two cases confirm the benefits provided by the proposed MPC strategy to the operation of the gas compression unit.