Open benchmarks for assessment of process monitoring and fault diagnosis techniques: A review and critical analysis

•Review of openly available benchmarks for testing of process monitoring and fault diagnosis techniques.•Assessment of richness of the information, availability of real data, ease of use, challenges that must be considered and potential for scientific advances.•Summary and analysis of previous works that used the benchmarks.•Exploratory data analysis of available datasets, with assessment of dynamics, nonlinearity, Gaussianity and data quality; routines are available for download as a Python library in https://github.com/afraniomelo/kydlib.•Reference for researchers and practitioners who wish to choose a reference benchmark. The present paper brings together openly available datasets and simulators for testing of process monitoring and fault diagnosis techniques. Some general characteristics of these benchmark models and datasets are then assessed, including the richness of the information, availability of real data, ease of use, challenges that must be considered and potential for scientific advances. A critical comparison is made based on Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) of readily available datasets. Previous works that used each benchmark are also reviewed and discussed. This reference can be used by researchers and practitioners who wish to choose a reference benchmark that best suits their particular interests and needs.