Online quality control of a continuous stirred tank polymerization reactor

The quality of polymers, defined as the mean of the weight chain length distribution and the conversion rate of the reaction, is controlled in an experimental reactor according to changes in setpoint defining different polymer qualities. A new control concept is presented using a nonlinear controller, based on exact input-output linearization techniques. As the state variables and the parameters defining the polymer quality are not measurable online; an extended Kalman filter is used for state estimation. The control concept was successfully tested at a lab-scale polymerization reactor