Automated temperature control in batch reactor using LabVIEW

Maintaining the temperature of a batch reactor is essential in many chemical and manufacturing processes such as batch distillation, chemical mixing and polymerisation. There is a requirement to control the speed of stirrer in an exothermic chemical mixing reaction to ensure an optimal stirring and to maintain the temperature of the reactor under control. Temperature of reactor can also be maintained by controlling the flow of liquid through valves. In this paper an effort is made to control the opening and closing of the valves and speed of stirrer using stepper motor. The control action is taken based on the reactor temperature and desired temperature (set point) given through LabVIEW graphical user interface. The present work is focused on providing an user friendly interface in LabVIEW to achieve a software based control for stepper motor using 8051 microcontroller, which can be used in the applications where valve and speed control and is required based on temperature.