Robust iterative learning control of an exothermic semi-batch chemical reactor Original Research Article

This work focuses on the temperature control of a semi-batch chemical reactor used for flue chemicals production. Such reactor is equipped with a heating/cooling system composed of different thermal fluids. In order to ensure the tracking performance of the desired temperature profile, an iterative learning control (ILC) named batch model predictive control (BMPC) has been adopted. The synthesis of the considered strategy is illustrated and improvements of the algorithm scheme are proposed. Firstly, a guaranteed convergence of the algorithm is illustrated. Secondly, in presence of high frequency disturbance effects, an off-line filtering is adopted for enhancing the achieved performances. Third, a robust supervisory control procedure is employed to choose the right fluid and to reduce the superfluous fluid changeovers, mainly where fluids are of different nature. Finally, the incidence of repetitive disturbances, on line low frequency disturbances and model mismatch are investigated through simulation runs.