Temperature control via robust compensation of heat generation: Isoparaffin/olefin alkylation

The temperature control of the heterogeneous alkylation, where H2SO4 is used as catalyst, is discussed in this paper. The problem is to design a control function to stabilize temperature in face of uncertain kinetic model. The proposed controller, whose structure resembles a PI-controller, is based on energy balance. The resulting feedback controller is robust, leads to an acceptable performance, and computes the temperature of the coolant from the refrigeration section to the reactor. The effectiveness and robustness of the designed controller for computing the coolant temperature is tested by means of simulations in such a manner that we study the effects of: (i) load disturbances, (ii) model uncertainties and (iii) initial conditions for estimation values.