Control of the quality of polymer products in continuous reactors: comparison of performance of state estimators with and without updating of parameters

In the paper the control of the product quality in polymerization reactors is analysed in the presence of persistent perturbations (unmodeled disturbances, modeling errors), as met in industrial reactors. The free radical polymerization of methyl-methacrylate in a continuous stirred tank reactor is studied. It is shown that state estimators (Extended Kalman Filters) with constant parameters cannot give offset free performance. Criteria for the selection of a set of parameters to be updated as additional states in the filter and to evaluate their effectiveness in opposing the action of realistic perturbations are given by an analysis of the linearized model of the system. Performance of different types of estimators, including one and twotime scale filters, with and without updating of parameters, is analysed by simulation on the full order process and the predictions made by previous analysis are confirmed. In the most common case of presence of perturbations affecting the energy balance and the concentration of initiator in the reactor, offset free control of the molecular weight of the product can be achieved by means of a filter which is based only on measurements of temperature and conversion and makes an update of two parameters. In the case that also the kinetic model of the polymerization reaction is affected by errors, a two-time scale filter, which makes use also of Molecular Weight values and updates three parameters, becomes necessary to obtain offset free performance.