Experimental Control of a Multi-Bed Tubular Autothermal Reactor

Inferential internal model control (IMC) is used to control the exit concentrations of a tubular autothermal reactor subject to feed temperature and stochastic disturbances. Exit concentration is inferred from catalyst bed temperature measurements using a static estimator obtained during modal model reduction. A comparison between IMC and traditional PI output feedback controllers is made. The effect of the IMC filter tuning parameter on the regulation of the experimental system is investigated. Control studies using only a single exit temperature measurement are presented.