Adaptive Control of a Laboratory Water-Gas Shift Reactor With Dynamic Inlet Conditions

Most studies on the control of fixed-bed reactors have focused on dealing with small perturbations about the steady-state inlet conditions. However, little attention has been given to the problem of controlling a reactor subject to large inlet disturbances. Adaptive control offers one possible solution to this problem. This paper discusses application of the Generalized Predictive Controller to a laboratory scale, near-adiabatic, fixed-bed, water-gas shift reactor. This reactor facility exhibits such attributes as inverse response, variable dead-time, and inherent system nonlinearities. Because of the wide range of operating conditions that are experienced when the system is perturbed, adaptive control algorithms appear to be well-suited for this system. The magnitude of the disturbances that can be successfully controlled is a key issue that is addressed in this work.