Cascade control of a tubular chemical reactor

Abstract

The paper presents the cascade control design of a tubular chemical reactor with an exothermic consecutive reaction. The control is performed in primary and secondary control-loops where the primary controlled output of the reactor is the concentration of the main reaction product and the secondary output is the mean temperature of the reactant. A common control input is the coolant flow rate. The controller in the primary control-loop is a P-controller with the gain calculated using simulated or measured steady-state characteristics of the reactor. The controller in the secondary control-loop is an adaptive controller. The proposed method is verified by control simulations.