Optimal control of a time-varying catalytic fixed bed reactor with catalyst deactivation

The paper deals with the linear-quadratic control problem for a time-varying partial differential equation model of a catalytic fixed-bed reactor. The classical Riccati equation approach, for time-varying infinite-dimensional systems, is extended to cover the two-time scale property of the fixed-bed reactor. Dynamical properties of the linearized model are analyzed by using the concept of evolution systems. An optimal LQ-feedback is computed via the solution of a matrix Riccati partial differential equation. Numerical simulations are performed to show the performance of the designed controller on the fixed-bed reactor.