Nonlinear model predictive control of a reactive distillation column

This paper considers the application of nonlinear model predictive control (NLMPC) to a highly nonlinear reactive distillation column. NLMPC was applied as a nonlinear programming problem using orthogonal collocation on finite elements to approximate the ODEs that constitute the model equations for the reactive distillation column. Diagonal PI controls were used to identify that the [L/D,V] and the [L/D,V/B] configurations performed best. NLMPC was applied using the [L/D,V] configuration and found to provide a factor of 2–3 better performance than the corresponding PI controller. The effect of process/model mismatch on the performance of the NLMPC controller was also evaluated.