Plant-wide control of a hybrid process

摘要

This paper deals with the model predictive control (MPC) of an industrial hybrid process where continuous and batch units operate jointly: the crystallization section of a sugar factory. The paper describes a plant-wide predictive controller that takes into account, both, continuous objectives and manipulated variables, as well as those related to the discrete operation and logic of the batch units. The MPC is formulated with time events, so that a more efficient NLP optimization technique, instead of MINLP, could be applied. Adaptation is provided by model updating and error estimation. Results of the controller operation in an industrial simulator are provided.