Modelling and predictive control of an olive oil mill

This paper describes the modelling and predictive control of the extraction process in an olive oil mill. The work is focused on the thermal part of the process, where the raw material is prepared for the mechanical separation. The paper shows the development of a model based upon first principles combined with experimental results and validated with real data. Different control strategies have been tested under simulation, showing that good performance can be obtained by the use of a predictive controller that takes into account the measurable disturbances that appear in the process. Constraints in actuators are also included in the control strategy.