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8709261 
Journal Article 
Slashing waste through tighter control 
Hawkins, C; Wood, M 
1999 
Yes 
Chemical Engineering
ISSN: 0009-2460 
106 
7 
p1 
English 
There comes a time when even the most sophisticated process-control protocols are insufficient for monitoring product quality. This is the problem at BASF's Seal Sands plant which manufactures in excess of 200,000 m.t./yr of acrylonitrile (AN), which is the first step in the chain of processes leading to the production of hexamethylene diamine, a precursor of nylon. The AN process, which takes place in a continuous fluidized-bed reactor, which is complex and requires multivariable control. To operate the system, multivariable statistical control is used.