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HomeAuthorsFriedman, Y. Z.

Friedman, Y. Z.

Petrocontrol, New York, New York

Y. Zak Friedman is a Principal Consultant with Petrocontrol. He has practiced APC for most of his career, specializing in using first-principles models for inferential process control and has developed inferential models to fit many hydrocarbon processes. Dr. Friedman’s experience spans more than 50 yr, working with Exxon Research and Engineering, KBC Advanced Technology and Petrocontrol. He holds a PhD degree from Purdue University.

HP Control: Where has engineering judgment gone?

Hydrocarbon Processing / March 2006
Petrocontrol: Friedman, Y. Z.
Process Control

One of my clients has a dozen or so distillation multi-variable predictive control (MVPC) applications, implemented by one of the major advanced process control (APC) vendors. These applications have ..

HP Control: Choosing inferential modeling tools

Hydrocarbon Processing / January 2006
Petrocontrol: Friedman, Y. Z.
Process Control

Goel and Shah of Reliance Industries in India published a recent article, claiming that spreadsheet regression is the preferred choice for inferential modeling based on price considerations.1 Since co..

HP Control: Why coker APC applications are tough

Hydrocarbon Processing / December 2005
Petrocontrol: Friedman, Y. Z.

I recently helped commission a coker multivariable predictive control (MVPC) application at the ROG Horst refinery in Germany (see acknowledgment). Commissioning new advanced process control (APC) app..

HP Control: Dr. Pierre Latour's views on APC

Hydrocarbon Processing / November 2005
Petrocontrol: Friedman, Y. Z.
Process Control

Pierre Latour has been a pillar in our advanced process control (APC) industry for as long as anyone can remember. His long and turbulent career started upon graduating from Purdue University with a P..

HP Control: Recent trends in control

Hydrocarbon Processing / September 2005
Petrocontrol: Friedman, Y. Z.
Process Control

As you know, Zak Friedman has taken over writing this column. Zak had a column prepared for this issue, but the company he interviewed declined permission to publish it (Zak wouldn't let them make it ..

HP Control: Part 3 – What is advanced process control?

Hydrocarbon Processing / July 2005
Petrocontrol: Friedman, Y. Z.
Process Control

Part 1 discussed what APC attempts to do and how it makes money. Part 2 discussed the structure of modern APC. This part discusses MVPC's small optimizer and the importance of inferential models.. S..

HP Control: Part 2 – What is advanced process control?

Hydrocarbon Processing / June 2005
Petrocontrol: Friedman, Y. Z.
Process Control

Part 1 discussed what APC attempts to do and how it makes money. This part discusses modern APC. Structure of a modern APC application. We now leave the philosophical concepts and go into the struct..

HP Control: Part 1 – What is advanced process control?

Hydrocarbon Processing / May 2005
Petrocontrol: Friedman, Y. Z.
Process Control

A stream of e-mail that followed my January and February editorials1,2 has convinced me that an advanced process control (APC) tutorial would be beneficial. First, a conceptual discussion: What does..

HP Control: HPIn Control: Website provides useful advanced process control information

Hydrocarbon Processing / March 2005
Petrocontrol: Friedman, Y. Z.
Process Control

Following is an interview with Dr. Babak Khosrowshahi, the founder of APC-network.com. What is APC-network and what are its objectives? "APC-network brings together a virtual advanced process contro..

HP Control: More about inferential control models

Hydrocarbon Processing / February 2005
Petrocontrol: Friedman, Y. Z.
Process Control

My friend and colleague, Myke King, wrote an article1 proposing rules for dealing with inferential control models. For the most part, I agree with the arguments, and especially enjoyed the funny illus..