Experimental identification of arrhenius equation parameters for control purposes

Abstract

In the process control area, there are a lot of systems with nonlinear behaviour. Specific case of such nonlinear system is an exothermic chemical reactor. The reactor nonlinearity can arise from different reasons. One of them is the changeable reaction speed, which depends on the reactants concentration and the in-reactor temperature. The second dependence is described by Arrhenius equation. Knowledge of the Arrhenius equation parameters is a key for correct mathematical model composition and also for safe and successful control. Some possibilities of the parameters determination are described in the literature. However, they are complicated and not very suitable for online identification of a real process. A new approach developed by the author is introduced in this article. The possibility of identification the reaction rate and its temperature dependence from a measured temperature profiles are shown. The identification method including all necessary derivation is described. Also the results of experimentally measured data identification are presented.