A systematic approach to plant-wide control based on thermodynamics

In this work, a systematic approach to plant-wide control design is proposed. The method combines ingredients from process networks, thermodynamics and systems theory to derive robust decentralized controllers that will ensure complete plant stability. As a first step, the considered process system is decomposed into abstract mass and energy inventory networks. In this framework, conceptual inventory control loops are then designed for the mass and energy layers to guarantee that the states of the plant, both in terms of extensive and intensive properties, will converge to a compact convex region defined by constant inventories. This result by itself does not ensure the convergence of intensive variables to a desired operation point as complex dynamic phenomena such as multiplicities may appear in the invariant set. In order to avoid these phenomena, thermodynamics naturally provides the designer, in these convex regions, with a legitimate storage or Lyapunov function candidate, the entropy, that can be employed to ensure global stability. Based on this, the control structure design procedure is completed with the realization of the conceptual inventory and intensive variable control loops over the available degrees of freedom in the system. To that purpose, both PI and feedback linearization control are employed. The different aspects of the proposed methodology will be illustrated on a non-isothermal chemical reaction network.