Like every manufacturer facing rising costs, Nirma sought ways to reduce its fuel and power consumption as well as optimize the recovery of costly feed kerosene used in its manufacturing process.

　　A graphic depiction of how Honeywell Profit Controller and Profit Optimizer were implemented in Nirma's overall control structure to achieve plantwide global dynamic real-time optimization.
　　KEY
　　281x96x2= the number of controlled variables, manupulated variables, and disturbance variables, res

pectively
　　Pre-frac= a tower that flashes off the lightest materials to prevent flooding in the downstream fractionation tower(s)
　　UF= union finingwww.cechina.cn, UOP technology; Molex, Pacol控制工程网版权所有, PEPwww.cechina.cn, and Detal also refer to UOP processes
　　FE= front end
　　BE= back end
　　Par column= paraffin column
　　Based in India, Nirma manufactures detergents, bath soaps, salt, industrial products, and fertilizer. Its products have a retail reach of more than two million retail outlets and more than 300 million loyal consumers throughout India. The company started as a one-man operation in 1969, and today employs about 15,000 people.
　　Nirma’s linear alkyl benzene (LAB) complex is considered one of the most efficiently run LAB plants in India. The LAB production process starts with the processing of straight run kerosene fraction. During processingCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, normal paraffin is separated from other kerosene fraction.
　　The normal paraffin separation process is called the front endCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, in which the normal paraffin is olefinated and eventually reacted with benzene, which results predominantly in LAB. It also produces some heavy alkyl benzene (HAB).
　　The LAB production unit is called the back end. For providing heat to the distillation column, reboilers, and other heaters, hot oil is used in both front-end and back-end processing. Hot oil return is sent to a furnace for maintaining its supply temperature.
　　Recovery optimization
　　Nirma’s main goals for its LAB plant were to improve energy efficiency and to optimize normal paraf