Process plant monitoring based on multivariate statistical analysis and on-line process simulation

A system for on-line monitoring of operation of a process in a process plant having a process control system to control the process in connection with process measurements indicative of the operation of the process, the system comprising:

• one or more processors communicatively coupled to the process plant and collectively operable to:
• execute a control routine via the process control system to generate and output an on-line process parameter based on the process measurements;
• execute contemporaneously with the control routine a simulation of the process to generate a simulated process parameter corresponding to the on-line process parameter, the simulation of the process implementing a simulation element modeling one of a plurality of physical devices within the process plant and using as input of the process measurements;
• implement a multivariate statistical analysis of the operation of the process to generate statistical data, the multivariate statistical analysis using as inputs at least the on-line process parameter, the simulated process parameter, and one or more of the process measurements;
• evaluate the statistical data from the multivariate statistical analysis during the operation of the process for a determination of whether a fault condition exists;
• and
• generate a user interface display of a process graphic to enable the on-line monitoring of the process by depicting the fault condition determination in connection with a plurality of physical devices within the process plant.