Control of an industrial waste gas scrubber process

Presents an application of a digital design methodology. The basis of the methodology is the well-known discrete linear quadratic regulator technique. This when applied to the `non-minimal state-space´ (NMSS) representation of Young (1987) leads to a design with natural decoupling. The design algorithm is, however, only one element of an integrated multi-loop design strategy which consists of five distinct stages; sampling time selection, model identification and parameter estimation, controller structure selection, controller design and on-line performance monitoring. The strength of the methodology lies in the tools for automatic sampling time and controller structure selection. These allow the simplest controller configuration to be established that satisfies the chosen performance specifications