ABB Switzerland Ltd announced today the successful commissioning of its MPC-based Expert Optimizer solution at Buzzi Unicem USA's Signal Mountain plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. Expert Optimizer has been installed on the vertical raw mill and cement mill at Signal Mountain.

Installation started in the middle of September and was successfully completed in the middle of October 2007. Since the system was installed, there have been production increases from both the raw mill and cement mill. At times the raw mill was a process bottleneck for the entire plant. Expert Optimizer's MPC technology helped to reduce this limitation. The increase in the performance of the mill has translated into an incremental increase in clinker production. Expert Optimizer also has improved the process stability, which means there is now a more consistent feed to the kiln, again resulting in a production increase.

Expert Optimizer is advanced process control software the purpose of which is to achieve continuous process optimization. Part of ABB's Collaborative Production Management suite, it coordinates the setpoints of the different parts of the process and immediately detects deviations among the different parts of the operation. By applying MPC, Expert Optimizer is able to stabilize and then optimize the process which helps plant management to reach profitability and sustainability goals.