A Look Backward at the "Gestation of a Digital Process Control System"

Abstract

The Ciba-Geigy AG is an international integrated chemical process operating company with plants and offices all over the world. Their main products are pharmaceuticals, dye stuffs, agricultural chemicals, industrial chemicals and photo chemical products.
The experiences described in this paper are those of one of the operating plants of the then-American subsidiary, Geigy Chemical Corporation. Specifically, this is a new herbicide plant built at St. Gabriel, Louisiana. This process was a new one and in the pilot plant stage, as well in similar commercial operations, it was determined that the particular process was heavily dependent upon analytical results for proper operating and end product control.
On these bases, then, it was decided to examine the possible benefits of on-line computer control to the new plant that was then in the planning design stage.