Constrained MPC control of a heat-exchanger system

GONZÁLEZ, ALEJANDRO HERNÁN; MARCHETTI, JACINTO LUIS

San Nicolás, Argentina

Congreso; Xº Reunión de Trabajo en Procesamiento de la Información y Control; 2003

Abstract: Heat-exchanger network control has been a research subject for many years. Though some strategies going from hierarchical control structures to low-level control systems have been proposed to solve the problem, the use of Model Predictive Control (MPC) has not been analysed in regard to these process systems. Like in many other process applications, when working with heat-exchanger networks one must not only try to efficiently control the system, but also to reach additional energy-related goals. This paper ex-plores the flexibility and adaptability of con-strained MPC to handle the energy recovery re-quirements in a fundamental two-unit system. The simulation results, which are extensively discussed in this work, encourages to extending the strategy to larger energy recovery systems.