Active Surge control of electrically driven centrifugal compressors

A novel approach for the active surge control of centrifugal compression systems with actuated recycle valves is presented. This actuator, commonly used in industrial plants, allows the system to recover from surge by increasing the mass flow rate through the compressor. A backstepping control is designed for the recycle valve, and is combined with a nonlinear Model Predictive Control of the drive torque, to track a desired reference state while accounting for system constraints. The optimization problem is solved approximately, to account for the computational limitation of industrial controllers. Simulations based on a real compression system show that the proposed control system tracks a desired reference and is robust to uncertainties in the outlet valve characteristics.