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Computers and Chemical Engineering 32 (2008) 789804

Real-time optimization of the pulp mill benchmark problem

Mehmet Mercangoz, Francis J. Doyle III
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5080, USA
Received 7 June 2006; received in revised form 9 March 2007; accepted 12 March 2007
Available online 15 March 2007

Abstract
An economic optimization methodology for the pulp mill benchmark problem is presented. The process variables with economic significance
and the available degrees of freedom in the process control structure are identified and used to build an optimization-relevant model. This model is
later used to solve a linear programming (LP) based economic optimization problem. The optimization results are utilized to change the operating
conditions of the benchmark problem leading to a 17% reduction of operating costs. Sensitivity analysis results at the new operating conditions
indicate potential profit improvement with respect to changes in both market conditions and process disturbances. Based on this analysis, a real
time optimizer (RTO) is designed and interfaced with the existing control systems and the pulp mill benchmark. On-line optimization scenarios
with the RTO system demonstrate annual savings up to US$ 250,000 compared to a static operating strategy.
2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Real-time optimization; Economic optimization; Plantwide optimization; Plantwide control; Pulp and paper production

1. Introduction
Pulp and paper production is a critical part of the global economy with annual revenues of US$ 500 billion from sales of over
300 million tonnes of products (DeKing, 2004). The principle
of economies of scale is very important for this sector, and highcapacity mills are necessary to reduce operating costs. On the
other hand, the pulp and paper industry (PPI) is extremely capital intensive. A modern pulp and paper mill with a production
capacity of 300,000 tonnes per year is estimated to cost more
than a billion dollars to construct (Smook, 1992). In terms of
energy use, pulp and paper production accounts for 11% of the
total manufacturing sector, standing in the third place behind
the petroleum (24%) and chemicals (19%) production industries
(DoE Annual Review, 2004).
Increasing energy costs, tightening environmental regulations for the operation of pulp mills, and fast growing
international competition are reducing the profitability margins and return on investment rates considerably for the PPI.
Although the projection of consumption trends towards year
2015 show approximately 2% annual growth in the demand for
pulp and paper products (Jaakko Poyry Consulting, 2003), cycli-

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 805 893 8133; fax: +1 805 893 4731.
E-mail address: frank.doyle@icb.ucsb.edu (F.J. Doyle III).

0098-1354/$ see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compchemeng.2007.03.004

cal fluctuations and demand shifts among the end products, such
as a drift from newspaper to cardboard, are forcing the sector
to adopt more flexible production strategies and to improve the
efficiency of existing pulp and paper mills.
Economic optimization studies for petroleum and chemicals
production systems have proven to be very beneficial for those
sectors and the resulting tools and algorithms have seen wide
acceptance by the industry (Georgiou, Taylor, Galloway, Casey,
& Sapre, 1997; Rotava & Zanin, 2005). Under the current conditions of the PPI, the development of similar algorithms for pulp
and paper manufacturing offers a very important opportunity to
improve the profitability of this sector.
There are a number of studies in the literature that address
the optimization of the unit operations in pulp and paper mills:
Cristina, Aguiar, and Filho (1998) studied the optimization
of a Kraft digester process; Runklera, Gerstorfer, Schlang,
Junnemann, and Hollatz (2003) optimized a refining process for
fiber board production; and Dabros, Perrier, Forbes, Fairbank,
and Stuart (2005) used a direct search method to optimize a
broke recirculation system. However, it is important to note that
the optimization of individual process units in isolation will produce sub-optimal results due to the interactions created by the
heat integration and material recycle loops in a pulp mill. These
characteristics of the pulp mill process motivate a plantwide
approach to both control system design and economic optimization problems.

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M. Mercangoz, F.J. Doyle III / Computers and Chemical Engineering 32 (2008) 789804

Brewster, Uronen, and Williams (1985), working in the

Purdue Laboratory for Applied Industrial Control (PLAIC), pioneered the study of hierarchical control strategies for plantwide
operations in the pulp and paper industry. In more recent years,
a number of researchers have investigated groups of subunits,
such as the optimization of the bleach plant (Dogan & Guruz,
2004; Vanbrugghe, Perrier, Desbiens, & Stuart, 2004). Nilsson
and Soderstrom (1992) studied the operation of a complete
mill but only considered the minimization of energy consumption. Blomberg and Golemanov (1973) studied the selection of
inventory levels in a pulp and paper mill as a stochastic feedback optimization problem. In a similar manner, Santos and
Dourado (1999) and Sarimveis, Angelou, Retsina, and Bafas
(2003) looked at the selection of production rates and inventories
as scheduling problems by using detailed models for complete mill operation. Kayihan (1997) offered an optimization
approach for process systems management in the pulp and paper
industries. The work of Dhak et al. (2004) provided a generic
optimization method for paper mills, using a process simulator to
determine optimal operating conditions for the water and broke
systems in a paper mill. Shih and Krishnan (1973) proposed to
optimize the mill wastewater treatment design and operations.
Finally, Thibault et al. (2003) studied the multi-criteria optimization of a complete thermo-mechanical pulping process with
seven input variables and four process outputs. A wide variety
of optimization algorithms and problem formulations were used
in these studies, and an excellent overview of such optimization
problems in the process industries is provided by Biegler and
Grossmann (2004).
Once the economic optimization problem is successfully
solved for the nominal case, it can be reformulated for application in real-time optimization (RTO) (Seborg, Edgar, &
Mellichamp, 2004). In an RTO application, the optimization
problem is re-evaluated on-line according to the measurements
from the plant, based on external market conditions, and also
to accommodate adjustments from the production schedule.
A successful implementation of on-line optimization requires
a well-designed control system, as the instructions from the
optimizer are going to be implemented by the process controllers. Such a two-tier formulation for control and economic
optimization has been proposed by many academic and industrial researchers through the years, with some early recognition
and guidance provided by Cutler and Perry (1983) and Prett
and Garcia (1988). RTO is widely used in the petrochemicals industry and it serves as an essential part of modern day
control systems (Young, 2006). Such RTO applications are typically based on rigorous steady state models of the processes,
however, applications based on the combination of model predictive control (MPC) and RTO that utilize dynamic process
models can also be found in the recent literature (Engell, 2006;
Tosukhowong, Lee, Lee, & Lu, 2004; Zanin, Gouvea, & Odloak,
2002). As an alternative to RTO, several researchers (Morari,
Stephanopoulos, & Arkun, 1980; Skogestad, 2000) argued that
a self-optimizing control structure can be formed by a set
of controlled variables which, when kept at constant setpoints,
passively lead to near-optimal operation with acceptable loss.
Similar arguments led to the development of performance eval-

uation criterion for model-based RTO systems, such as the

concept of design cost as introduced by Forbes and Marlin
(1996).
There are several RTO studies in the pulp and paper industry.
Vanbrugghe et al. (2004) developed an RTO application based
on internal model control and Dumont, Van Fleet, and Stewart
(2004) worked on a setpoint generation tool, both for bleach
plants in Kraft pulp mills. In a more recent study, Cheng, Forbes,
and Marlin (2006) looked at the coordination of MPC controllers
for RTO applications for the same benchmark problem considered in the present work. In a recent industrial study, Pettersson,
Ledung, and Zhang (2006) reported the installation of an on-line
production planning and optimization system to an integrated
pulp and paper mill.
In this paper, we focus on the plantwide optimization problem and stress the relationship between optimization and process
control. Recently, Castro and Doyle (2004a) presented a pulp
mill benchmark problem, and studied the plantwide control of
a pulp mill (Castro & Doyle, 2004b). They listed the economic
optimization of the benchmark problem as an open challenge
along with modeling, estimation, process control, and fault diagnosis problems. In the present work, the pulp mill benchmark
problem is studied for economic optimization in two phases:
first, an economic optimization problem is developed and a sensitivity analysis on the solution is carried out; second, an RTO
system is designed and interfaced with the pulp mill control
system for on-line optimization. The RTO system is first used to
move the plant from a nominal operating mode to a more profitable operating region. The performance of the RTO system at
this new operating region is later evaluated in four scenarios. In
the following sections, the economic optimization procedure and
the development of the RTO system are detailed, and the results
of the optimization calculations and simulation scenarios are
presented. A discussion of these results precedes the concluding
remarks of the paper.
2. Economic analysis of the pulp mill benchmark
2.1. The pulp mill benchmark problem
The benchmark problem developed by Castro and Doyle
(2004a) consists of modular representations of various unit operations in a complete pulp mill, which are modeled as perfectly
mixed vessels or distributed parameter systems (plug flow vessels). Dynamic mass and energy balances are combined with
empirical equations for physical properties and thermodynamic
information. The models are written in the C programming language using MATLAB s-function format with SIMULINK as
the interface for the simulation. The complete mathematical
model has approximately 8200 states, with a total of 82 manipulated variables, 58 disturbance variables and 114 measured
outputs. A number of alternative plantwide control designs are
provided with the benchmark problem, including MPC-based
designs as well as completely decentralized SISO based formulations.
The flowsheet of the pulp mill benchmark problem is shown
in Fig. 1. The process is composed of two major sections, namely

M. Mercangoz, F.J. Doyle III / Computers and Chemical Engineering 32 (2008) 789804

791

Fig. 1. The process flowsheet of the pulp mill benchmark problem with both the fiber line and the chemical recovery operations (Castro & Doyle, 2004b).

the fiber line (upper section) and the chemical recovery loop
(lower section). The objective in the fiber line is to convert
woodchips into pulp by a chemical process (known as Kraft or
sulfate process). The chemistry involves the reactive/extractive
removal of the lignin component from the woodchips, which ties
the cellulosic structure together and prevents the separation of
individual fibers. The PPI quantifies the lignin content using the
Kappa number, which is based on to be the ratio of the lignin
mass to the total solid mass. Most of the delignification process
is achieved in the main reactive unit of the pulp mill, denoted
as the digester. In this unit, the Kappa number is reduced from
approximately 160 to as low as 20, under high pressure and
temperature by using a reactive liquor.
The remaining sequence of units in the fiber line is known as
the bleach plant. Here, the aim is to continue the delignification
process but also to target the pigments on the fibers to remove the
brown color. The color is represented by the brightness value as
measured by the ability of the pulp sample to reflect monochromatic light. The naming convention for the units in the bleach

plant is based on the bleaching chemicals used. In the pulp mill

benchmark problem, the bleaching process takes place in three
sequential towers D1 , E0 , and D2 , where the letters D and E symbolize the bleaching chemicals ClO2 and NaOH, respectively.
For the pulp mill benchmark problem, the product quality criteria are specified for the Kappa number after the E-tower and the
brightness value after the D2 -tower.
The second section in the pulp mill benchmark is the recovery
loop, where the chemicals used in the fiberline are regenerated
through a sequence of unit operations. The fresh reactive mixture
used in the digester is a solution of NaOH and Na2 S, known as
white liquor. The liquid mixture leaving the digester is denoted
as weak black liquor, which carries the reacted inorganic salts
and the extracted organic components from the woodchips. The
extracted organics have significant heat content; however, weak
black liquor is fairly dilute and cannot sustain combustion. For
this reason, the weak black liquor is concentrated in a series of
evaporation operations to over 60% solids by mass. The concentrated black liquor is then burned in the recovery boiler to

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M. Mercangoz, F.J. Doyle III / Computers and Chemical Engineering 32 (2008) 789804

utilize the heat content, but the main objective is to regenerate

Na2 S from Na2 SO4 and to recover Na2 CO3 . The regeneration
of NaOH is achieved in a series of causticizing reactions by
using CaO. In a separate regeneration loop, CaO is recovered
from the causticizing byproduct CaCO3 in a gas-fired rotary
limekiln. A recent overview of operation and control challenges
for integrated pulp and paper mills can be found in reference
Mercangoz and Doyle (2006).
Three different criteria characterize the mode of operation in
the pulp mill benchmark. These are the production rate and the
two quality requirements, namely the E-tower Kappa number
and the D2 -tower brightness. According to these criteria, three
different production rates and two different pulp grades are used
to define six different modes of operation. In this work, the nominal operating region is chosen to be the mode corresponding
to a production rate of 1000 tonnes/day, E Kappa number of
2.5 and D2 brightness of 0.81. The plantwide control system in
the present work is also chosen as the basic MPC-based design
detailed originally in Castro and Doyle (2004b).
In the present study, the pulp mill benchmark is used to represent a real pulp mill for simulation scenarios. The fundamental
mass and energy balances behind the dynamic mathematical
model of the benchmark problem are assumed to be hidden and
are not used for any model based control or optimization calculations. Consequently, the proposed economic optimization
methodology is applicable to any industrial pulp mill.
2.2. Economic overview of the pulp mill operations
From a general perspective, the economic optimization of
a pulp mill process involves the minimization of energy use,
minimization of the consumption of cooking and bleaching
chemicals, and the maximization of pulp yield that characterizes
the efficiency of the process in converting woodchips to bleached
pulp. In their simplest form, these goals reduce to a problem of
minimization to a constraint. The cost of the cooking and bleaching operations in the fiber line scales with the desired degree of
delignification and brightness at the end of the process. The operating costs will fall if the mill is operating closer to the minimum
quality requirements, and the costs will rise if a larger safety margin is maintained. Since these safety margins can be reduced by
efficient plantwide control a natural interaction between control
and economic optimization is formed.
Beyond these constraint-based optimization opportunities
there are competing tradeoffs implicit in the operation of a pulp
mill. A balance exists between the operating temperatures and
the consumption of chemicals in the cooking and bleaching
operations. The same degree of delignification and bleaching
can be obtained by utilizing a larger volume of reagents at
a lower operating temperature or by utilizing a smaller volume of reagents at a higher operating temperature. Similarly,
the degree of cooking and bleaching throughout different units
in the fiber line can be redistributed according to the relative
cost of different reagents, to utilize the cheaper alternatives to a
higher extent, while minimizing the use of more expensive ones.
Similar balances and tradeoffs exist in the evaporation train or
in the limekiln when vapor compression evaporators or mul-

tiple fuel sources are utilized. As the costs of different fuels,

electricity, and various chemicals change with respect to each
other, these balances will shift and readjustments on operating
conditions, capacity utilization, and the cooking and bleaching
targets may become necessary. Capturing an optimal operating
policy under these circumstances depend on the consideration
of interactions among unit operations during problem formulation, model development, and optimization calculations, which
require a plantwide approach to economic optimization besides
process control.
3. Optimization of the pulp mill benchmark
In this section, the objectives described in the preceding subsection will be cast in the form of a mathematical programming
problem, and solutions are calculated for the economic optimization of the pulp mill benchmark. This objective is accomplished
in four steps.
(1) A suitable economic objective is formulated. For this purpose, the costs and revenues associated with the operation
of each unit in the benchmark problem are determined and
the variables affecting plant economics are identified.
(2) Relationships between the economic variables and the process control structure in the plant are analyzed to determine
the available degrees of freedom for optimization.
(3) An optimization-relevant model is developed via a number of plant tests to establish the relationships among the
variables in the optimization problem.
(4) The optimization problem is solved with respect to the specified bounds on the variables and the optimization-relevant
model to yield the most profitable operating region for the
plant (according to the problem formulation) in terms of the
decision variables.
3.1. Economic objective
The economic objective in the benchmark problem is simply
to maximize the profit from the operation of the mill. There
are two sources for revenues: the bleached pulp product, and
the excess steam production in the recovery boiler. In terms of
expenses, the main contribution comes from the woodchips as
the raw material. In terms of utilities, there are three grades of
steam used in various parts of the pulp mill, and in addition to
chilled water as a coolant, water is consumed as wash streams
in both the fiber line and chemical recovery operations. The
bleaching chemicals O2 , ClO2 , and NaOH form a major portion
of operating costs. In the chemical recovery loop, salt-cake, fresh
lime, and caustic make-up flows for white liquor regeneration
contribute to the costs together with the natural gas use for the
operation of the limekiln.
All but two of the items in the economic objective appear as
manipulated variables in the pulp mill benchmark. The exceptions are the pulp production rate (controlled variable) and the
steam production in the recovery boiler (uncontrolled output).
Most of the manipulated variables of economic significance are
assigned to process control loops. Six of them are directly manip-

M. Mercangoz, F.J. Doyle III / Computers and Chemical Engineering 32 (2008) 789804

793

Table 1
Variables with economic importance in the pulp mill benchmark
Variable index

Variable name

Related to

Nominal (flow/min)

CV3
MV4
MV5
MV7
MV8
MV9
MV14
MV15
MV17
MV20
MV21
MV22
MV23
MV25
MV26
MV28
MV36
MV37
MV41
MV50
MV51
MV53
MV55
MV58
MV62
MV64
MV67
MV68
MV71
MV72
N/A
MV1
MV12
MV42
MV43
MV6
MV19
MV24
MV27
MV44

Production rate
Steam flow 1
Steam flow 2
Steam flow 4
Steam flow 5
Water flow
O steam flow 1
O steam flow 2
O steam flow 3
D1 ClO2 flow
D1 wash water
D1 steam flow
E caustic flow
E steam flow
D2 ClO2 flow
D2 wash water
Coolant flow
Oxygen flow
Salt-cake flow 1
Coolant 1 flow
Wash stream 1
Fresh lime flow
Coolant 2 flow
Caustic flow 3
Wash stream 2
Wash stream 3
Wash stream 4
Wash stream 4
Kiln fuel flow
Water flow
Steam production
Wood chips flow
O caustic flow
Effect 1 steam flow
Effect 2 steam flow
Steam flow 3
D1 water flow
E back-flush flow
D2 caustic flow
Effect 3 steam flow

MPC1
SISO
MPC1
MPC1
MPC1
SISO
SISO
SISO
SISO
MPC2
SISO
SISO
MPC2
SISO
MPC2
SISO
MPC1
SISO
SISO
MPC3
SISO
SISO
SISO
SISO
SISO
SISO
SISO
SISO
MPC4
SISO
Free
MPC1
MPC1
MPC3
MPC4
Free
Free
Free
Free
Free

629.998
0.175
0.204
0.126
0.101
675.293
53.603
53.603
234.761
674.316
6025.597
238.954
129.354
132.929
496.924
6164.761
1249.440
13.221
56.096
1.938
0.041
1.848
0.160
0.014
2.227
0.683
0.193
0.229
42.367
0.399
4158.718
2.550
29.000
942.401
923.600
0.103
189.000
484.060
0.293
881.893

ulated by the MPC controllers, 28 are assigned to regulatory

PI loops, and five are not used for closed-loop control. These
40 economic variables in the pulp mill benchmark are listed in
Table 1 along with their nominal values, costs and additional
concentration and density disturbance factors. The numerical
values for the cost factors are given in Table 2. When the costs
and revenues associated with these variables at their nominal
values are combined, the net profit at steady state is found to be
US$ 106.7 min1 .
A mathematical expression for the net profit, given in Eq. (1),
is used as the objective function for economic optimization. A
typical entry in the objective function is a mass or volumetric
flow rate (denoted as v), multiplied by the unit price and the
concentration or density of the active ingredient if necessary.
In the benchmark problem, important active reagent concentrations are included as disturbance variables. For other variables,
concentration and densities are assumed to be constant. In the
present analysis, the concentration and density values are com-

Cost (US$ min1 )

Disturbances and conversion factors

- c pulp
c digester steam
c digester steam
c digester steam
c digester steam
c water
c bleach steam
c bleach steam
c bleach steam
c ClO2
c water
c bleach steam
c NaOH
c bleach steam
c ClO2
c water
c cooling water
c O2
c Na2 SO4
c cooling water
c cooling water
c CaO
c cooling water
c NaOH
c cooling water
c cooling water
c cooling water
c cooling water
c natural gas
c water
- c recovery steam
c wood chips
c NaOH
c steam
c steam
c digester steam
c water
c water
c NaOH
c steam

4000
4000
4000
4000

DV14

0.1
DV19

DV58

0.2
1000
1000
0.454
1016

0.725
1000

DV28
D11

0.5
2
2

0.1
1.82

Table 2
Costs and prices of chemicals, products and utilities in the pulp mill benchmark
Cost item

Cost (US$/kg)

c
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
c

0.0038
0.0629
1.0000
0.0530
0.0065
0.1020
0.2000
0.1702
0.1000
0.3300
0.0051
0.0025
0.0001
0.0390

bleach steam
CaO
ClO2
cooling water
digester steam
Na2 SO4
NaOH
natural gas
O2
pulp
recovery steam
steam
water
wood chips

794

M. Mercangoz, F.J. Doyle III / Computers and Chemical Engineering 32 (2008) 789804

bined with the unit price multipliers and denoted as c. The most
recent price update and the most recent estimate for the disturbances are assumed to be provided for the calculation of the
coefficients. The resulting expression for the objective function
f (in terms of US$ min1 ) is linear in terms of the economic
process variables v:
f (v) = c1 v1 + c2 v2 + c3 v3 + + c40 v40

(1)

3.2. Analysis of the process control system for optimization

degrees of freedom
In a facility under closed-loop control, the available degrees
of freedom are the setpoints for the master controllers and the
extra manipulated variables, which are not assigned to control
systems. In the MPC-based plantwide control design for the
pulp mill benchmark there are four separate MPC controllers,
and a lower level regulatory system composed of single-input
single-output (SISO) controllers (Castro & Doyle, 2004b). MPC
controllers regulate 14 important quality and environmental variables. A number of the SISO controllers are used to stabilize the
integrating and open-loop unstable modes of the process and the
rest are used to maintain the process conditions in various unit
operations. In the MPC-based control design, 21 manipulated
variables are not used for any process control purposes and can
be used for economic optimization.

.
.
.

.
..

..
.
0


0  K1,1

 K2,1
1


..
..

.

.


..
..

.
.


..

1 0 
.

0 1 K40,1
0

The MPC controllers are tightly connected with the economic

process variables and, in the present work, all 14 MPC setpoints
are treated as decision variables along with the 21 free manipulated variables. Additionally, 9 selected SISO loop setpoints
are considered as decision variables bringing the total available
degrees of freedom to 44 variables. Table 3 contains a list of
these decision variables, their upper and lower bounds and their
values at nominal operation. The combination of the 44 decision
variables with the 40 economic variables brings the total size of
the economic optimization problem to 84 variables.
3.3. The optimization-relevant model
The physical relationships among these 84 variables due
to the mass and energy balances in the pulp mill should
be established to determine the appropriate constraint set for
the economic optimization problem. The optimization-relevant
model representing these relationships is identified using a number of plant tests and setpoint changes in the control structure
of the pulp mill benchmark problem. For this purpose the 44

decision variables (denoted as u) are stepped up and down 5%

from their nominal values and the change in the steady state
values of the economical variables v are determined. Fig. 2 illustrates the inputoutput character of the decision variables and
the economical variables during these step tests respectively.
The results of the plant tests are converted to steady state
gains according to Eq. (2). For visualization, the steady state gain
matrix is converted to a binary form by thresholding the gains
for every row based on the average gain for the corresponding
economic variable (v). The resulting matrix is shown in Fig. 3,
where it can be seen that the decision variables 9, 14, 24 and
25 have a profound effect on almost every economic output. In
addition, the economic variables 27 and 35 cannot be affected
by the decision variables, indicating a very high input weight or
another problem with these manipulated variables.
Kij =

vi
uj

(2)

As shown in Eqs. (3) and (4), the relationship between the

optimization variables are converted to a standard set of linear
equality constraints for the mathematical program.
bi = vi(nominal)

44


(3)

Kij uj(nominal)

j=1

K1,2
K2,2

K40,2

K1,44

b1
..
.
..
.
..
.
..
.

v1

K2,44

.

..

..

v40

u
..

1
.

..

..

u44
K40,44
b40

(4)

It should be noted that the optimization-relevant model can

be used to derive a reduced order system, where the economical
variables in the objective function are replaced with the decision
variables. In the present work, we will use the full order system
to simplify the sensitivity analysis following the solution of the
optimization problem.
3.4. Solution of the optimization problem
In the previous subsections an economic objective function was formulated from the economic variables in the pulp
mill benchmark, additional variables with available degrees
of freedom are included into the analysis, and finally an
optimization-relevant model is developed based on plant tests to
establish the relationship between process economics and optimization decision variables. Since the objective function and
all of the constraints (upper and lower bounds for the variables
and the optimization-relevant model) are linear in the decision
variables, the resulting optimization problem is a linear pro-

M. Mercangoz, F.J. Doyle III / Computers and Chemical Engineering 32 (2008) 789804

795

Table 3
Decision variables used by the economic optimization methodology
Variable index

Variable name

Related to

Lower bound

Nominal value

Upper bound

CV3
CV4
CV8
CV9
CV10
CV11
CV19
CV22
CV24
CV26
CV44
CV62
CV79
CV81
CV15
CV20
CV21
CV23
CV25
CV36
CV113
CV82
CV84
u6
u13
u19
u24
u27
u32
u34
u35
u39
u44
u61
u69
u73
u74
u75
u76
u77
u78
u79
u80
u82

D2 production rate
Digester Kappa
Digester upper EA
Digester lower EA
Upper extract conductivity
Lower extract conductivity
O kappa
E kappa
E washer [OH]
D2 brightness
Black liquor solids
Slaker temperature
Kiln O2 excess %
Kiln CaCO3 residual %
Digester liquor temperature
O tower temperature
D1 tower temperature
E0 tower temperature
D2 tower temperature
O tower consistency
Recaust CaOH2 concentration
WL temperature
WL NaOH concentration
Steam flow 3 (digester)
Excess WL split (digester)
D1 water flow
E back-flush flow
D2 caustic flow
Split fraction 6 (brown stock)
Split fraction 8 (brown stock)
Split fraction 9 (brown stock)
Split fraction 1 (MEE)
Effect 3 steam flow (MEE)
Filter lower flow (filter 2)
Kiln primary air flow
Effect 5 exit flow (MEE)
Effect 4 exit flow (MEE)
Effect 3 exit flow (MEE)
Effect 6 exit flow (MEE)
Effect 2 exit flow (MEE)
Effect 1a exit flow (MEE)
Effect 1b exit flow (MEE)
Effect 1c exit flow (MEE)
Coolant 4 flow (post Slaker)

MPC1
MPC1
MPC1
MPC1
MPC1
MPC1
MPC1
MPC2
MPC2
MPC2
MPC3
MPC3
MPC4
MPC4
SISO
SISO
SISO
SISO
SISO
SISO
SISO
SISO
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629.979
12.5
2.39994233
2.250018703
17.46057706
12.11756028
5
2.4
0.000449992
0.8
0.625
669.0120255
0.014965398
0.024871656
425.5
368
329
344
343
0.05
3
358
99.14983595
0.0373375
0.9
68.51250002
240
0.07325
0.293617021
0.7176
0.38
0.720203732
821.9245866
0.54
62.5
75
75
75
75
75
75
75
75
2.5

629.998
19.9993
9.59977
9.00007
69.8423
48.4702
9.99972
2.5
0.00085
0.81
0.65001
674.012
0.03497
0.02487
435.5
371
339
349
348
0.1
18
368
100
0.103
1
189
484.06
0.293
0.31915
0.78
0.4
0.9
881.893
0.862
250
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
10

630
27.5
16.79959631
15.75013092
122.2240394
84.82292196
15
2.6
0.001249992
0.84
0.675
679.0120255
0.054965398
0.024871656
445.5
373.55
347.4999999
353.2499999
352.2499999
0.1425
30.75
376.4999999
150
0.18025
1.1
330.75
847.105
0.4797875
0.340851064
0.83304
0.417
1.575
952.4448
1.5085
437.5
525
525
525
525
525
525
525
525
17.5

gramming (LP) problem as shown in Eq. (5).

min cT v
u

s.t.
[ I|

 
v
K ]
=b
u

(5)

ulow < u < uhigh

vlow < v < vhigh
The solution to the problem in Eq. (5) is obtained easily using
an LP solver (MATLAB Optimization Toolbox linprog routine).
The location of the optimal solution for LP problems lies on the
constraints. In the solution of this problem, seven variables are
constrained by upper bounds, 15 variables are constrained by

lower bounds, and the remaining 62 variables are constrained by

the 40 equality constraints representing the plant model. Shadow
prices in an LP are a measure of the sensitivity of the optimal
solution to the location of the constraints. The important shadow
prices in the solution of the economic optimization problem are
listed in Table 4. It should be noted that each equality constraint
representing the plant model is associated with one economic
variable, but can constrain multiple decision variables.
The LP solution predicts a new set of operating conditions,
which can increase the net profit rate in the pulp mill benchmark from US$ 106.7 to 126.4 min1 , corresponding to an 18%
increase. At this point it should be clarified that the constraints
around the E Kappa number and D2 brightness are kept within
a 4% and 1.2% range, respectively, from their nominal values,
and the production rate is not allowed to vary at all, consider-

796

M. Mercangoz, F.J. Doyle III / Computers and Chemical Engineering 32 (2008) 789804

Fig. 2. The hierarchical control structure in the pulp mill benchmark.

ing that it is to be determined from a higher decision making

structure such as a scheduling routine. Thus the LP solution still
satisfies the corresponding mode of operation of the pulp mill
benchmark. Fig. 4 depicts the costs and revenues associated with
different unit operations at the nominal conditions as well as the
optimal solution determined by the LP. The operating costs of

all unit operations are predicted to be reduced except for the

limekiln and the O-tower, for which the LP solution indicates
increased costs. The steam production in the recovery boiler is
also reduced, even though it is a source of revenue.
The expected minimization to constraints is observed for the
E Kappa number and the D2 brightness variables. The high

Fig. 3. A binary view of the gain based model depicting only the entries with more than twice the absolute value of the average gain for a given row (dark squares).
The variable indices follow the sequences in Tables 1 and 3.

M. Mercangoz, F.J. Doyle III / Computers and Chemical Engineering 32 (2008) 789804
Table 4
Shadow prices of selected constraints from the LP solution
Variable index

Variable name

Upper bounds
CV36
CV3
CV8
MV32
MV27
MV35
MV34

O tower consistency
D2 production rate
Digester upper EA
Split fraction 6 (brown stock)
D2 caustic flow
Split fraction 9 (brown stock)
Split fraction 8 (brown stock)

Lower bounds
CV24
CV81
MV58
CV26
MV8
MV39
MV7
CV79
MV6
CV22
MV61
CV15
CV84
MV41
MV20

E washer [OH]
Kiln CaCO3 residual %
Caustic flow 3 (post WLC)
D2 brightness
Steam flow 5 (digester)
Split fraction 1 (MEE)
Steam flow 4 (digester)
Kiln O2 excess %
Steam flow 3 (digester)
E Kappa
Filter lower flow (filter 2)
Digester liquor temperature
WL NaOH concentration
Salt-cake flow 1 (MEE)
D1 ClO2 flow

Equality constraints
MV58
MV6
MV4
MV5
MV1
MV7
MV53
MV72
MV71
MV37
CV3
MV8

Caustic flow 3 (post WLC)

Steam flow 3 (digester)
Steam flow 1 (digester)
Steam flow 2 (digester)
Wood chips flow
Steam flow 4 (digester)
Fresh lime flow (causticizers)
Mill water flow (MEE)
Kiln fuel flow
Oxygen flow (O reactor)
D2 production rate
Steam flow 5 (digester)

Shadow price
0.257
0.191
0.132
0.085
0.067
0.066
0.033
3051.417
602.592
162.687
57.407
30.522
17.376
16.880
12.582
3.011
0.620
0.251
0.041
0.025
0.018
0.011
40.512
26.080
26.080
26.080
22.683
9.199
1.001
0.132
0.123
0.102
0.138
4.442

797

shadow price for the production rate upper bound also suggests
that if it were allowed to vary, it would have been moved to its
upper bound. However, the LP solution does not set the black
liquor solids content to its maximum value. The delignification
targets are reduced for the digester and increased for the O-tower.
A uniform trend for operating temperatures is not observed.
4. On-line optimization of the pulp mill benchmark
In the previous section, an economic optimization problem is
formulated and solved for the pulp mill benchmark by treating
the benchmark simulator as the data generator for an actual pulp
mill. This optimization problem can provide a foundation for the
design of a two-tier RTO system for the pulp mill benchmark
problem. In this section the following tasks will be performed:
An optimizer will be developed and interfaced with the process control structure in the pulp mill benchmark. Initially
the optimizer will transition the benchmark from the nominal
operating conditions to the solution determined by the LP.
At the new operating region, a bias update will be carried out to
improve the accuracy of the optimization-relevant model. The
RTO system will readjust the plant according to the improved
predictions.
After the bias update, a sensitivity analysis on the RTO system will be evaluated to determine the cases where an RTO
application will be beneficial.
According to the sensitivity analysis the RTO system will be
tested in four scenarios for the effects of process disturbances
and changes in reagent and utility prices.
4.1. Transition from nominal operation towards the LP
solution
The closed-loop RTO design considered in this section is
depicted in Fig. 5. The optimizer receives external market parameters and disturbance estimates at each execution step to update

Fig. 4. Comparison of the costs and revenues in the pulp mill benchmark at nominal operation and according to the LP solution.

798

M. Mercangoz, F.J. Doyle III / Computers and Chemical Engineering 32 (2008) 789804

Fig. 5. The three layer hierarchical arrangement of optimization and control tasks in the pulp mill benchmark after the addition of the RTO.

the cost factors in the objective function in an on-line manner.

The LP solution is updated, based on the new parameters, and
the updated solution is applied to the process by changing the
setpoints for the MPC and SISO controllers as well as the values
of the free manipulated variables.
The proposed RTO system is added to the SIMULINK file
of the pulp mill benchmark along with a profit soft-sensor and
it is interfaced with the existing control system. The execution
frequency of the optimizer for the substantial transition from
the nominal operation towards the LP solution is chosen to be
100 min. To ensure a smooth transition, the operation is started
with the nominal setpoints and manipulated variable values unom

and a forgetting factor h is used to ramp the nominal settings

towards the LP solution uLP by increasing h from 0 to 1 by
0.1 increments at every RTO execution as shown in Eq. (6).
The costs and revenues at the resulting steady state operation
is shown in Fig. 6 and the dynamic transition data for selected
pulp mill benchmark variables is presented in Fig. 7.
u = huLP (h 1)unom

(6)

The results show that the net profit rate in the benchmark is
increased from 106.7 to US$ 118.8 min1 indicating a 12.3%
improvement which is short of the 18% increase predicted by
the LP solution. However, this number translates into more than

Fig. 6. Comparison of the costs and revenues in the pulp mill benchmark at nominal operation, according to the LP solution and according to the simulation results
after the implementation of the LP solution on the benchmark.

M. Mercangoz, F.J. Doyle III / Computers and Chemical Engineering 32 (2008) 789804

799

Fig. 7. Dynamic transition data for selected variables from the nominal operating region to the LP solution under RTO supervision.

17% reduction of operating costs in the pulp mill benchmark,

which is still significant. Analysis of results for individual units
show that the optimizer is most efficient for the operation of the
digester, D1 -tower and the recausticizing areas and least efficient for the reduction of costs in the multi-effect evaporators.
The large offsets between the targets generated by the LP based
RTO and the actual steady state results indicate that the accuracy
of the optimization-relevant model has deteriorated during the
transition.
The violation of constraints on the variables at steady state
can be an important concern. In this optimization algorithm, the
setpoints are the decision variables and the resulting outputs are
the manipulated variable levels. Since the manipulated variables
have hard bounds, which cannot be violated, the only violation
possible is in the controlled variables. The setpoints for the controlled variables are determined to respect their upper and lower
bounds, but if the control structure cannot provide offset free
control, some controlled variables will violate their constraints
at the new steady state. Digester Kappa number, O-tower Kappa
number, and the D2 -tower brightness shown in Fig. 7 are controlled variables. The O-tower Kappa number is observed to have
an offset, but its value is within acceptable bounds. There are
other controlled variables with some steady state offset, which
are not shown in Fig. 7, but a constraint violation is not observed.
4.2. Bias updating
A common method of improving the accuracy of simple models is the use of a bias term to make up for the difference between
the observed and predicted values (Ljung, 1998). Such bias terms

for the optimization-relevant model of this study can be defined

as in Eq. (7) and the right hand side of the model equations can
be updated as shown in Eq. (8).
Bi = vi,real vi,predicted
bi = vi(nominal)

44


Kij uj(nominal) + Bi

(7)
(8)

j=1

The pulp mill benchmark operating at the steady state targets provided by the LP solution is used to calculate the bias
terms. In the next step, the targets are updated by re-solving the
LP problem according to the optimization-relevant model, corrected with the bias values. The RTO system is operated with the
same settings given in the previous subsection. The dynamical
transition results after the bias update is provided in Fig. 8. A
significant change is not observed in the net profit rate after the
bias correction. However, the sum of the absolute error in the
prediction of the 40 economical variables is reduced by an order
of magnitude, from a value of 1190.6132.7.
4.3. Sensitivity analysis for real-time optimization
Although the RTO system detailed in the previous subsections is used solely to steer the benchmark problem in a
supervised fashion, the real purpose of RTO is to make proactive changes to the operating policies in an autonomous fashion
in the face of process disturbances and changing market conditions. The benefit from real-time optimization is expected to be
more significant if the process economics are sensitive to dis-

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M. Mercangoz, F.J. Doyle III / Computers and Chemical Engineering 32 (2008) 789804

Fig. 8. Dynamic transition data for selected variables under RTO supervision after the LP solution is updated with a bias term.

turbances or changes in market conditions. On the other hand,

if the optimal operating conditions in a plant are not sensitive
to the expected variation in prices and in the processes, than an
RTO application will not be advantageous.
A step by step perturbation analysis is conducted on the 14
cost items listed in Table 2 and various disturbances in the
benchmark problem, to determine their effects on the sensitivity of the LP solution (after the bias update). The results
indicate that for 35% variation from the nominal cost values, the LP solution showed the highest sensitivities to the cost
of NaOH, medium and low grade steam. Moreover, ten important disturbances (denoted as d) are chosen from the benchmark
problem for 35% perturbation analysis and, as shown in Eq.
(9), their effects are included into the optimization problem as
a disturbance model (denoted as KD). In the chosen subset
of disturbances, the LP solution is found to be most sensitive
to the incoming woodchips temperature and the limekiln fuel
temperature.
bi = vi(nominal)

44

j=1

Kij uj(nominal) + Bi +

10


KDij dj

(9)

j=1

4.4. RTO scenarios

Based on the sensitivity analysis of the previous subsection,
the performance of the RTO system is evaluated in four scenarios. In the first scenario, the pulp mill benchmark under
closed-loop RTO (operating at the conditions after the bias
update) experiences a +10% step disturbance (starting at 215 min

in the simulations) in the incoming woodchips temperature. The

performance of the closed-loop RTO system is compared to the
case where the benchmark starts at the same conditions, but without a RTO. The RTO calculations are executed every 25 min and
the results are directly implemented without a forgetting factor.
The disturbance model in Eq. (9) is embedded into the RTO calculations. Fig. 9 shows the instant profit rate and the change in
the major quality variables for the cases with and without RTO
for the first scenario. The results indicate that the system with
RTO generates about US$ 0.13 min1 additional steady state
profit. In the second disturbance scenario, the limekiln fuel temperature drops by 30%. The results are shown in Fig. 10. In this
case, the effect of the disturbance on the profit rate is smaller
and the RTO moves the plant incorrectly to a US$ 0.06 min1
less profitable regime as compared to the static operating point.
In the first price change scenario, the cost of NaOH is reduced
by 35% and the simulation results with and without RTO are
presented in Fig. 11. In this scenario, the system without RTO
has a slight transient from the previous bias update and does
not experience any actual physical effects. The RTO changes
the operating point and leads to a higher net profit rate by US$
0.4 min1 , but due to the dynamic transition the E Kappa number
slightly violates the upper quality limit of 2.61 for about half an
hour, even though there are no external disturbances effecting
the system. In the final RTO scenario, the prices of all three
steam grades are raised by 25%, causing the profit rates to fall
as shown in Fig. 12. However, the system with RTO readjusts
the steam production in the recovery boiler and other operating
conditions to provide an additional profit of US$ 0.3 min1 over
the system without RTO.

M. Mercangoz, F.J. Doyle III / Computers and Chemical Engineering 32 (2008) 789804

801

Fig. 9. Dynamic response of the pulp mill benchmark to a +10% step disturbance in incoming wood chips temperature for scenarios with and without RTO.

Fig. 10. Dynamic response of the pulp mill benchmark to a 30% decrease in the limekiln fuel temperature for scenarios with and without RTO.

5. Discussion of results
In this paper, an RTO system for the pulp mill benchmark
problem is formulated. For this purpose, an economic optimization problem is developed by taking the process economics and
the available degrees of freedom in the benchmark control structure into account. A linear steady state model is developed to

establish the relationships among the variables chosen for optimization and the resulting linear set of equations are used in the
solution of the LP problem as equality constraints. Solution of
the LP is implemented on the pulp mill benchmark by interfacing
an RTO unit with the existing control system. The RTO system
is later tested in four scenarios, where process disturbances and
changes in reagent and utility prices are considered.

802

M. Mercangoz, F.J. Doyle III / Computers and Chemical Engineering 32 (2008) 789804

Fig. 11. Dynamic response of the pulp mill benchmark to a 35% decrease in NaOH costs, for scenarios with and without RTO.

Several important results obtained in the previous sections

warrant additional discussion. A moderate gap is observed
between the predicted profit improvement by the LP solution
and the actual improvement obtained in the simulations, pointing
to the limited accuracy of the optimization relevant model. Two
major factors reduce the model accuracy. First, the actual benchmark model behind the simulator consists of over 8200 nonlinear
differential equations. A 200 fold reduction of this system into
40 equations for only the economic process variables creates

a structural discrepancy due to neglected dynamics and interactions. Second, the optimization relevant model is identified at
the nominal operating condition, which is changed considerably
according to the original LP solution. The validity of the optimization relevant model is degraded during the transition due to
the nonlinearities present in the actual benchmark model. The
bias update considerably reduced the prediction error at this new
operating region by matching the model error at steady-state.
However, the optimization calculations rely on the relationships

Fig. 12. Dynamic response of the pulp mill benchmark to a 25% increase in steam costs, for scenarios with and without RTO.

M. Mercangoz, F.J. Doyle III / Computers and Chemical Engineering 32 (2008) 789804

of the different decision variables with respect to each other,

which are represented by the gains Kij in the model. After the
bias update, the second RTO scenario results in reduced profitability that is caused by inaccurate predictions of the model.
Rather than a bias update, these gains can be updated for an
actual improvement of the optimization relevant model at the
new operating region. Methods for designing plant experiments
for model based RTO can be found in reference Yip and Marlin
(2003).
The use of plantwide identification experiments should also
be discussed from an industrial point of view. The time scales
for pulp mills are quite long and process disturbances and scheduled operational changes can reduce the accuracy of plantwide
step tests or make them completely impractical. However, the
optimization methodology presented in this paper is not limited by such a procedure. The only requirement is to obtain
the gains between the optimization decision variables and the
economic variables. In an industrial setting, such models can
be conveniently developed by combining historical closed loop
data, simple steady state simulators, and limited plant tests. The
accuracy of the optimization relevant model in this study is quite
limited and still a 17% reduction of operating costs is made
possible.
The sensitivity analysis after the bias update revealed four
cases where on-line optimization could be beneficial compared
to keeping the process at a static operating point. The differences between RTO based and static strategies for these cases
are demonstrated in simulation scenarios. In three cases, the RTO
improved the profitability by an average of US$ 0.27 min1 or
about US$ 130,000 per year. In one case, the RTO resulted in
slightly less profitable operation due to the errors in the model.
Considering that four parameters out of 14 prices and 10 disturbances ended up shifting the location of the LP solution, an
RTO application can be beneficial for more than 15% of the
expected changes. This observation can put the value of an RTO
application to 15% of US$ 130,000, which will be about US$
20,000 per year. However, it should be noted that the original
17% reduction in operating costs corresponds to US$ 6 million
annual savings, which is enabled by the same economic analysis, model development and optimization tools that were used
for the RTO.
The dynamic response of the pulp mill benchmark to economic optimization should be discussed as well. In the original
optimization, and also after the bias update, the plant takes
about 80 h to settle to the new operating region. This value
depends on the size of the forgetting factor or the ramp
rate, but a faster transition results in violation of quality constraints and even instability of certain units. Some controlled
variables such as the D2 brightness and some manipulated
variables such as the limekiln fuel flow experience oscillatory
behavior even at the current transition rate. This observation
brings about another connection between the control system
and economic optimization beyond the discussion in Section
2. The original control system for the benchmark problem is
not designed to perform together with an on-line optimization system and the tuning can be revised for better tracking
performance.

803

As far as the dynamics are concerned, the RTO based system generally goes through a relatively less profitable transient
of 510 h due to the utility costs of re-adjusting the operating
point and the plant settles in less than 40 h. The economics of the
transient response is not addressed in this paper and a combination of RTO and MPC studies (Zanin et al., 2002; Engell, 2006)
and a grade change approach are necessary for the solution of
that problem. Clearly, the process is operating much closer to
the minimum pulp quality requirements after the original economic optimization and it is quite possible to have more frequent
constraint violations during dynamic transients under an RTO.
Also, the effect of RTO execution frequency and other RTO
components such as steady state detection or the profit sensor is
not considered in this paper, but they are very important for the
performance of an RTO system.
6. Conclusion
In this work, an economic optimization methodology for
the pulp mill benchmark problem is presented. A plantwide
approach to optimization is used and the relationship between
plantwide process control and economic optimization is demonstrated in the development of an RTO for the pulp mill benchmark. The application of the economic optimization results on
the benchmark simulator resulted in significant reduction of
operating costs. The proposed methodology in this paper treated
the benchmark simulator as an actual mill and similar algorithms
can be applied to optimize the operation of existing pulp mills.
Acknowledgement
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support
of the Process Systems Engineering Consortium (PSEC) of
the University of California, Santa Barbara, University of
Massachusetts Amherst, and University of Illinois at Urbana
Champaign. The authors are grateful for the suggestions of the
anonymous reviewers.
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