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HomeAuthorsKern, A.G.

Kern, A.G.

Tesoro Corp., Los Angeles, California

HP Control: Automation: The path to reliability

Hydrocarbon Processing / August 2012
Tesoro Corp.: Kern, A.G.
Process Control / Americas / Asia/Pacific / Engineering & Design / Europe / Information Systems / Middle East / Safety

Consider the view looking back from 2020. Will the current decade be the decade of process automation? This may seem a puzzling way to frame the question. We have been automating for several decades. ..

Safety instrumented function design reduces nuisance trips

Hydrocarbon Processing / November 2011
Tesoro Corp.: Kern, A.G.
Environment & Safety / Process Control / Americas / Asia/Pacific / Europe / Information Systems / Loss Prevention / Middle East

Implementing low-cost best practices can provide peace of mind

HP Control: Reshaping process control: A corporate prerogative

Hydrocarbon Processing / October 2011
Tesoro Corp.: Kern, A.G.

Prior to the 1980s, process control was in the dark ages. Our main “technology” was the single-loop controller, despite that it operated obliviously to the many interactions and non-first or..

HP Control: Lose the pyramid (and find process control success)

Hydrocarbon Processing / July 2011
Tesoro Corp.: Kern, A.G.
Process Control / Process Optimization / Americas / Asia/Pacific / Europe / Middle East

Most people would classify multi-variable control—or advanced process control (APC)—over the past 20 years as a “slam dunk” in terms of process control, automation and optimization..

HP Viewpoint: Advanced process control: Optimization or control

Hydrocarbon Processing / December 2010
Tesoro Corp.: Kern, A.G.

After 20 years of advanced process control (APC) praise, a reckoning is now taking shape, with some challenging questions, such as: What happened to the original vision of “true real-time optimiz..

HP Viewpoint: Weighing on dual-temperature control

Hydrocarbon Processing / November 2010
Tesoro Corp.: Kern, A.G.
Process Control / Analyzers / Distillation

I’d like to weigh in again on the continuing debate regarding distillation column control.1–4 Attention has now turned to the practicality of “dual temperature” control,which is th..

HP Control: Continuous improvement or core-competency?

Hydrocarbon Processing / July 2010
Tesoro Corp.: Kern, A.G.
Process Control / Economics / Engineering & Design / Europe / Information Systems / Middle East

In the past decade or two, the concepts of key performance indicators (KPIs), continuous improvement, core-competency and best practices have received a lot of attention. What are the relationships be..

HP Control: Back to the future: Process control in 2010

Hydrocarbon Processing / February 2010
Tesoro Corp.: Kern, A.G.
Process Control

Where will process control money be spent in 2010? The choices include field instruments, safety systems (SISs), control system upgrades (DCSs), multivariable predictive control (MPC) and decision-sup..

HP Control: More on APC designs for minimum maintenance

Hydrocarbon Processing / December 2009
Tesoro Corp.: Kern, A.G.
Process Control

Perhaps Zak Friedman struck the perfect balance in his series of editorials,1 because while Dr. Latour thinks Zak went too far in his suggestions to prune multivariable control (MPC) matrices,2 I woul..

Practical process control system metrics

Hydrocarbon Processing / October 2009
Tesoro Corp.: Kern, A.G.
Process Control / Information Systems

Here are several useful examples

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