A New Control Strategy for the Aluminum Reduction Process Using Economic Model Predictive Control

Abstract In the Hall-Heroult process, the evolving design and operating conditions require an advance on the development of new process control strategies. Especially, with the technology of individual anode current measurement now available, it becomes possible to monitor and control the localized conditions in an aluminum reduction cell. In this paper, a new cell control strategy is developed based on the Economic Model Predictive Control method, aiming to improve the current efficiency of the aluminum reduction process and hence maximize its economic benefits through advanced control algorithms. In addition, a more balanced cell condition is achieved through reduced spatial and temporal variations of process variables, such as alumina concentration, anode cathode distance, anode current. The simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the new method by comparing its control performance with that of the traditional method.