Synthesis of nonlinear adaptive controller for a batch distillation

A nonlinear adaptive control strategy is proposed for a binary batch distillation column. The hybrid control algorithm comprises a generic model controller (GMC) and a nonlinear adaptive state estimator (ASE). The adaptive observation scheme mainly estimates the imprecisely known parameters based on the available tray temperature measurements. The sensitivity of the proposed estimator is investigated with respect to the effect of initialization error, unmeasured disturbance and uncertainty. Then, a comparative study is carried out between the derived nonlinear GMC–ASE controller and a traditional proportional integral law in terms of set point tracking and disturbance rejection performance. The study also includes the effect of measurement noise and parametric uncertainty on the closed-loop performance. The proposed adaptive control algorithm is shown to be quite promising due to the exponential error convergence capability of the ASE estimator in addition to the high-quality control action provided by the GMC controller.