Hybrid model predictive control of a sugar end section

Abstract This paper deals with the MPC control 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, the continuous objectives and manipulated variables, as well as the ones related to the scheduling of the batch units. The MPC is formulated avoiding the use of integer variables, so that a NLP optimization technique could be applied. Simulation results of the controller operation are provided *