State estimation and nonlinear tracking control simulation approach. Application to a bioethanol production system

FERNÁNDEZ PUCHOL, MARÍA CECILIA; NADIA PANTANO, M.; RODRIGUEZ, LEANDRO; GUSTAVO SCAGLIA

BIOPROCESS AND BIOSYSTEMS ENGINEERING

SPRINGER

Año: 2021

1615-7591

Tracking control of specifc variables is key to achieve a proper fermentation. This paper analyzes a fed-batch bioethanolproduction process. For this system, a controller design based on linear algebra is proposed. Moreover, to achieve a reliablecontrol, on-line monitoring of certain variables is needed. In this sense, for unmeasurable variables, state estimators basedon Gaussian processes are designed. Cell, ethanol and glycerol concentrations are predicted with only substrates measurement. Simulation results when the controller and estimators are coupled, are shown. Furthermore, the algorithms were testedwith parametric uncertainties and disturbances in the control action, and are compared, in all cases, with neural networksestimators (previous work). Bayesian estimators show a performance improvement, which is refected in a decrease of thetotal error. Proposed techniques give reliable monitoring and control tools, with a low computational and economic cost,and less mathematical complexity than neural network estimators