Application of Chemical Smart Manufacturing in Industry 4.0

A special issue of Processes (ISSN 2227-9717). This special issue belongs to the section "Manufacturing Processes and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (29 December 2023) | Viewed by 30806

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Interests: process intensification; microreactor; ionic liquids; reaction engineering; experimental and computational fluid dynamics; advanced materials manufacturing
College of Chemical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China
Interests: artificial intelligence; machine learning; computer assisted synthesis planning; chemical reaction optimization; continuous flow synthesis (flow chemistry); automated chemical synthesis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Industry 4.0 brings together a number of digital and physical advances that have the potential to transform chemical manufacturing. Various smart manufacturing technologies, such as process control and automation, production simulation, smart measuring devices and predictive asset management, can be used by the chemical industry to increase productivity and reduce risk.

This special issue on “Application of Chemical Smart Manufacturing in Industry 4.0” seeks high quality works focusing on the latest novel advances in smart manufacturing technology for chemicals. Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Smart data collection devices and database systems for chemical manufacturing
  • IoT and cloud platforms for data exchange for chemical manufacturing
  • Big-data and AI-based predictive analytics and decision-making for chemical manufacturing
  • Decision implementation mechanisms for chemical process control, automation, and optimization
  • Digital twins of chemical industry equipment

Prof. Dr. Kejun Wu
Dr. An Su
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • process control
  • process optimization
  • automation
  • process simulation
  • digital twins
  • data analytics
  • artificial intelligence
  • smart manufacturing

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Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 4027 KiB  
Article
Distributed Fiber Optic Vibration Signal Logging Well Production Fluid Profile Interpretation Method Research
by Yanan Guo, Wenming Yang, Xueqiang Dong, Lei Zhang, Yue Zhang, Yi Wang, Bo Yang and Rui Deng
Processes 2024, 12(4), 721; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr12040721 - 2 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1128
Abstract
Traditional logging methods need a lot of data support such as suction profile information, reservoir geological information, and production information of injection and extraction wells to calculate oil and gas production, which is a tedious and complicated process with low interpretation accuracy. Distributed [...] Read more.
Traditional logging methods need a lot of data support such as suction profile information, reservoir geological information, and production information of injection and extraction wells to calculate oil and gas production, which is a tedious and complicated process with low interpretation accuracy. Distributed fiber optic vibration signal logging is a technology that uses fiber optics to sense the vibration signals returned from different formations or well walls to analyze the surrounding formation characteristics or downhole events, which has the advantages of strong real-time monitoring results and high reliability of interpretation results. However, the currently distributed fiber optic vibration signal logging also fails to fully utilize the technical advantages to form a systematic production calculation process. Therefore, this paper proposes to use the K-means++ algorithm to divide the vibration signal frequency bands to represent different downhole events and use the amplitude mean curve envelope area of the reservoir-related frequency bands to calculate the relative production of each production formation. The experimental results correspond well with the relative water absorption data interpreted by conventional production logging, and the accuracy of production interpretation is high, which fills the gap of a production calculation method in the field of distributed fiber optic vibration signal logging in China and strongly promotes the development of the intelligent construction of oil and gas fields. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Chemical Smart Manufacturing in Industry 4.0)
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17 pages, 5512 KiB  
Article
Semantic Hybrid Signal Temporal Logic Learning-Based Data-Driven Anomaly Detection in the Textile Process
by Xu Huo and Kuangrong Hao
Processes 2023, 11(9), 2804; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11092804 - 21 Sep 2023
Viewed by 1051
Abstract
The development of sensor networks allows for easier time series data acquisition in industrial production. Due to the redundancy and rapidity of industrial time series data, accurate anomaly detection is a complex and important problem for the efficient production of the textile process. [...] Read more.
The development of sensor networks allows for easier time series data acquisition in industrial production. Due to the redundancy and rapidity of industrial time series data, accurate anomaly detection is a complex and important problem for the efficient production of the textile process. This paper proposed a semantic inference method for anomaly detection by constructing the formal specifications of anomaly data, which can effectively detect exceptions in process industrial operations. Furthermore, our method provides a semantic interpretation of exception data. Hybrid signal temporal logic (HSTL) was proposed to improve the insufficient expressive ability of signal temporal logic (STL) systems. The epistemic formal specifications of fault offline were determined, and a data-driven semantic anomaly detector (SeAD) was constructed, which can be used for online anomaly detection, helping people understand the causes and effects of anomalies. Our proposed method was applied to time-series data collected from a representative textile plant in Zhejiang Province, China. Comparative experimental results demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Chemical Smart Manufacturing in Industry 4.0)
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12 pages, 3353 KiB  
Article
Security of Cyber-Physical Systems of Chemical Manufacturing Industries Based on Blockchain
by Wu Deng, Wei Fan, Zhenzhen Li, Chi Cui, Xu Ji and Ge He
Processes 2023, 11(9), 2707; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11092707 - 11 Sep 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1542
Abstract
The traditional manufacturing systems are often enterprise-centric systems, whereas the modern chemical industry is oriented towards industrial chain integration. Enterprise entities present a loosely coupled state at the scale of the industrial chain, with decentralized characteristics. This poses greater challenges and requirements for [...] Read more.
The traditional manufacturing systems are often enterprise-centric systems, whereas the modern chemical industry is oriented towards industrial chain integration. Enterprise entities present a loosely coupled state at the scale of the industrial chain, with decentralized characteristics. This poses greater challenges and requirements for the industrial safety system. Based on the characteristics of the chemical manufacturing industry and blockchain, the application of the information security of blockchain in the chemical manufacturing industry is studied herein and the cyber-physical systems security architecture model of dual blockchains is proposed. The first-layer blockchain is applied at the system’s core function level to solve security issues at the system level and provide security guarantees for communication, transactions, and billing between users and manufacturers. Meanwhile, the second layer involves the system resource layer, which not only solves the security problem of cross-level platform data interaction, but also enables the point-to-point security of the device-level cyber-physical system to ensure internal equipment communication information security. A domestic commercial concrete manufacturing company’s real production and operation data were used to simulate basic functions such as transaction requests, trade success, and blockchain queries. After multiple tests, results show that its basic blockchain, query response, transaction creation, and block creation functions are all finished within milliseconds, meeting the industrial requirements. Its safety verification can meet the requirements of safety, efficiency, and low latency for production control in chemical industry sites, proving the feasibility of applying the dual blockchain model in the chemical manufacturing industry. Based on data security, privacy, and integrity requirements, the blockchain technology proposed in this article provides a more efficient, transparent, and secure operation and management solution for the chemical industry. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Chemical Smart Manufacturing in Industry 4.0)
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16 pages, 1479 KiB  
Article
All-Factor Average Method of Reserve Parameters with Crude Oil Volume and Mass Constraints
by Doujuan Zhang, Haimin Guo, Yuyan Wu, Cunyuan Chen, Ao Li, Jinyan Zhang and Yonggang Wang
Processes 2023, 11(9), 2558; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11092558 - 26 Aug 2023
Viewed by 1237
Abstract
In order to make the average value of each reserve parameter of a set of oil reserves more representative, this paper puts forward the all-factor average method of reserve parameters with crude oil volume and mass constraints. In the first step, the two [...] Read more.
In order to make the average value of each reserve parameter of a set of oil reserves more representative, this paper puts forward the all-factor average method of reserve parameters with crude oil volume and mass constraints. In the first step, the two constraint methods of crude oil volume and mass are adopted to calculate the average value of various parameters of the total items. The weight coefficient when the parameter is averaged is, respectively, the partial derivative of the volume or mass reserve calculation formula with respect to the parameter. Compared with the original calculation results, the average of their parameters all show a shift towards values with a significant share of reserves, especially effective porosity, oil saturation, and crude oil volume factor. The all-factor average method considers a more comprehensive set of factors than the original method. Therefore, each new average parameter should also be much more representative. Since the current reserve specification stipulates that each parameter needs to retain a certain number of decimal places, there inevitably is some carry error between the reserve results calculated by the parameters of the total items and the accumulated reserves of each unit. The second step is to select the optimal average value of each reserve parameter by using the full permutation combination selection method to reduce the carry error. A set of parameters that minimizes the sum of squared relative errors of crude oil volume and mass reserves is selected using the full permutation combination selection method, which is the optimal selection of the average value of the total set of items. Compared with the original method, the full permutation combination selection method can effectively reduce the carry error. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Chemical Smart Manufacturing in Industry 4.0)
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18 pages, 7092 KiB  
Article
Selective and Efficient Catalytic Oxygenation of Alkyl Aromatics Employing H2O2 Catalyzed by Simple Porphyrin Iron(II) under Mild Conditions
by Xin-Yan Zhou, Bin He, Yu Zhang, Jia-Ye Ni, Qiu-Ping Liu, Mei Wang, Hai-Min Shen and Yuan-Bin She
Processes 2023, 11(4), 1187; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11041187 - 12 Apr 2023
Viewed by 1528
Abstract
The excessive utilization of additives in chemical reactions is a troublesome problem in industrial processes, due to their adverse effects on equipment and processes. To acquire oxidative functionalization of alkyl aromatics under additive-free and mild conditions, a large library of metalloporphyrins was applied [...] Read more.
The excessive utilization of additives in chemical reactions is a troublesome problem in industrial processes, due to their adverse effects on equipment and processes. To acquire oxidative functionalization of alkyl aromatics under additive-free and mild conditions, a large library of metalloporphyrins was applied to the oxygenation of alkyl aromatics as catalysts with H2O2 as an oxidant. On the basis of systematic investigation of the catalytic performance of metalloporphyrins, it was discovered that, surprisingly, only porphyrin irons(II) possessed the ability to catalyze the oxygenation of alkyl aromatics with H2O2 under additive-free conditions and with satisfying substrate scope. Especially with 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(2,6-dichlorophenyl) porphyrin iron(II) (T(2,6-diCl)PPFe) as the catalyst, the substrate conversion reached up to 27%, with the selectivity of 85% to the aromatic ketone in the representative oxygenation of ethylbenzene with H2O2 as oxidant and without any additive used. The study of apparent kinetics and mechanisms in the optimal oxygenation system was also conducted in detail. Based on thorough exploration and characterization, the source of the superior catalytic performance of T(2,6-diCl)PPFe was acquired mainly as its planar structure, the low positive charge in the metal center, and better solubility in the oxygenation mixture, which favored the approach of reactants to the catalytic center, and the interaction between the metal center and H2O2. The beneficial interaction between T(2,6-diCl)PPFe and H2O2 was verified through cyclic voltammetry measurements and UV–vis absorption spectra. In comparison to previous studies, in this work, an efficient, selective, and additive-free means was developed for the oxygenation of alkyl aromatics under mild conditions, which could act as a representative example and a valuable reference for industrial processes in oxygenation of alkyl aromatics, and a great advance in the realization of oxygenation of alkyl aromatics under additive-free and mild conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Chemical Smart Manufacturing in Industry 4.0)
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14 pages, 8501 KiB  
Article
Continuous-Flow Hydrogenation of Nitroaromatics in Microreactor with Mesoporous Pd@SBA-15
by Kejie Chai, Runqiu Shen, Tingting Qi, Jianli Chen, Weike Su and An Su
Processes 2023, 11(4), 1074; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11041074 - 3 Apr 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2570
Abstract
The hydrogenation of nitroaromatics to prepare aromatic amines plays a crucial role in the chemical industry. Traditional hydrogenation has the risk of hydrogen leakage from the equipment, and its catalyst has the disadvantage of being easily deactivated and difficult to recover. In this [...] Read more.
The hydrogenation of nitroaromatics to prepare aromatic amines plays a crucial role in the chemical industry. Traditional hydrogenation has the risk of hydrogen leakage from the equipment, and its catalyst has the disadvantage of being easily deactivated and difficult to recover. In this study, we designed an efficient and stable mesoporous catalyst, Pd@SBA-15, which was constructed by impregnating the nanopores of the mesoporous material SBA-15 with palladium nanoparticles. The catalyst was then filled in a micro-packed-bed reactor (MPBR) for continuous flow hydrogenation. The designed continuous flow hydrogenation system has two distinctive features. First, we used mesoporous Pd@SBA-15 instead of the traditional bulk Pd/C as the hydrogenation catalyst, which is more suitable for exposing the active sites of metal Pd and reducing the agglomeration of nanometals. The highly ordered porous structure enhances hydrogen adsorption and thus hydrogenation efficiency. Secondly, the continuous flow system allows for precise detection and control of the reaction process. The highly efficient catalysts do not require complex post-treatment recovery, which continues to operate for 24 h with barely any reduction in activity. Due to the high catalytic activity, the designed mesoporous Pd@SBA-15 showed excellent catalytic performance as a hydrogenation catalyst in a continuous flow system with 99% conversion of nitroaromatics in 1 min. This work provides insights into the rational design of hydrogenation systems in the chemical industry. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Chemical Smart Manufacturing in Industry 4.0)
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13 pages, 6229 KiB  
Article
Metalloporphyrin-Based Metal–Organic Frameworks for Photocatalytic Carbon Dioxide Reduction: The Influence of Metal Centers
by Qian Li, Keke Wang, Heyu Wang, Mengmeng Zhou, Bolin Zhou, Yanzhe Li, Qiang Li, Qin Wang, Hai-Min Shen and Yuanbin She
Processes 2023, 11(4), 1042; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11041042 - 30 Mar 2023
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2965
Abstract
Photocatalysis is one of the most promising technologies to achieve efficient carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) under mild conditions. Herein, metalloporphyrin-based metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) with different metal centers, denoted as PCN-222, were utilized as visible-light photocatalysts for CO2 reduction. Due [...] Read more.
Photocatalysis is one of the most promising technologies to achieve efficient carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) under mild conditions. Herein, metalloporphyrin-based metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) with different metal centers, denoted as PCN-222, were utilized as visible-light photocatalysts for CO2 reduction. Due to the combination of the conjugated planar macrocyclic structures of metalloporphyrins and the stable porous structures of MOFs, all PCN-222 materials exhibited excellent light-harvesting and CO2-adsorbing abilities. Among the studied MOFs of varied metal centers (M = Pt, Fe, Cu, Zn, Mn), PCN-222(2H&Zn) exhibited the highest photocatalytic CO2RR performance, with an average CO yield of 3.92 μmol g−1 h−1 without any organic solvent or sacrificial agent. Furthermore, this was three and seven times higher than that of PCN-222(Zn) (1.36 μmol g−1 h−1) and PCN-222(2H) (0.557 μmol g−1 h−1). The superior photocatalytic activity of PCN-222(2H&Zn) was attributed to its effective photoexcited electron–hole separation and transportation compared with other PCN-222(2H&M) materials. The obtained results indicate that Zn ions in the porphyrin’s center played an important role in the reaction of active sites for the adsorption–activation of CO2. In addition, PCN-222(2H&Zn) showed the highest CO2 selectivity (almost 100%) and stability. This work provides a clear guide for the design of efficient photocatalysts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Chemical Smart Manufacturing in Industry 4.0)
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16 pages, 13557 KiB  
Article
Evaluation Techniques for Shale Oil Lithology and Mineral Composition Based on Principal Component Analysis Optimized Clustering Algorithm
by Wenyuan Cai, Rui Deng, Chengquan Gao, Yingjie Wang, Weidong Ning, Boyu Shu and Zhanglong Chen
Processes 2023, 11(3), 958; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11030958 - 21 Mar 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1772
Abstract
Shale oil reservoirs are characterized by complex lithology, complex mineral composition and strong heterogeneity. This causes great difficulty in lithologic evaluation. In this paper, a method of lithology identification is proposed by means of intersection plot method and machine learning method, and lithology [...] Read more.
Shale oil reservoirs are characterized by complex lithology, complex mineral composition and strong heterogeneity. This causes great difficulty in lithologic evaluation. In this paper, a method of lithology identification is proposed by means of intersection plot method and machine learning method, and lithology evaluation is carried out by combining the calculation of mineral content with a multi-mineral optimization model. The logging response characteristics of five lithologies are analyzed by using the logging curves selected by principal component analysis (PCA) discriminant analysis. In lithology identification, the system clustering algorithm is selected to identify shale oil reservoir lithology through layer-by-layer subdivision of sample lithology classification. Logging data has high vertical resolution and good continuity, and mineral prediction using logging data can ensure high accuracy. In this paper, the method of calculating mineral content by using multi-mineral optimization model has achieved good results in practice. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Chemical Smart Manufacturing in Industry 4.0)
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Review

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21 pages, 3400 KiB  
Review
A Review on Artificial Intelligence Enabled Design, Synthesis, and Process Optimization of Chemical Products for Industry 4.0
by Chasheng He, Chengwei Zhang, Tengfei Bian, Kaixuan Jiao, Weike Su, Ke-Jun Wu and An Su
Processes 2023, 11(2), 330; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11020330 - 19 Jan 2023
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 15084
Abstract
With the development of Industry 4.0, artificial intelligence (AI) is gaining increasing attention for its performance in solving particularly complex problems in industrial chemistry and chemical engineering. Therefore, this review provides an overview of the application of AI techniques, in particular machine learning, [...] Read more.
With the development of Industry 4.0, artificial intelligence (AI) is gaining increasing attention for its performance in solving particularly complex problems in industrial chemistry and chemical engineering. Therefore, this review provides an overview of the application of AI techniques, in particular machine learning, in chemical design, synthesis, and process optimization over the past years. In this review, the focus is on the application of AI for structure-function relationship analysis, synthetic route planning, and automated synthesis. Finally, we discuss the challenges and future of AI in making chemical products. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Chemical Smart Manufacturing in Industry 4.0)
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