Experimental application of nonlinear model predictive control: temperature control of an industrial semi-batch pilot-plant reactor

This paper describes the application of nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) to the temperature control of a semi-batch chemical reactor equipped with a multi-fluid heating/cooling system. The strategy of the nonlinear control system is based on a constrained optimisation problem, which is solved repeatedly on-line by a step-wise integration of a nonlinear dynamic model and optimisation strategy. A supervisory control routine has been developed, based on the same nonlinear dynamic model, to handle automatically the fluid changeovers. Both NMPCand supervisory control have been implemented on a PCand applied to a 16 l batch reactor pilot plant. Experiments illustrate the feasibility of such a procedure involving predictive control and supervisory control. # 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.