Modern control methods for chemical process systems

Abstract

Strong trends in chemical engineering have led to increased complexity in plant design and operation, which has driven the demand for improved control techniques and methodologies. Improved control directly leads to smaller usage of resources, increased productivity, improved safety, and reduced pollution. Model predictive control (MPC) is the most advanced control technology widely practiced in industry. This technology, initially developed in the chemical engineering field in the 1970s, was a major advance over earlier multivariable control methods due to its ability to seamlessly handle constraints. However, limitations in industrial MPC technology spurred significant research over the past two to three decades in the search of increased capability. For these advancements to be widely implemented in industry, they must adequately address all of the issues associated with control design while meeting all of the control system requirements including: -- The controller must be insensitive to uncertainties including disturbances and unknown parameter values. -- The controlled system must perform well under input, actuator, and state constraints. -- The controller should be able to handle a large number of interacting variables efficiently as well as nonlinear process dynamics. -- The controlled system must be safe, reliable, and easy to maintain in the presence of system failures/faults. This thesis presents a framework for addressing these problems in a unified manner. Uncertainties and constraints are handled by extending current state-of-the-art MPC methods to handle probabilistic uncertainty descriptions for the unknown parameters and disturbances. Sensor and actuator failures (at the regulatory layer) are handled using a specific internal model control structure that allows for the regulatory control layer to perform optimally whenever one or more controllers is taken offline due to failures. Non-obvious faults, that may lead to catastrophic system failure if not detected early, are handled using a model-based active fault diagnosis method, which is also able to cope with constraints and uncertainties. These approaches are demonstrated on industrially relevant examples including crystallization and bioreactor processes.