Partially decentralized control for ALSTOM gasifier

The gasifier plays a key role in the operation of the whole IGCC power plant. It is a typical multivariable control system with strict constraints on the inputs and outputs which makes it very difficult to control. This paper presents a partially decentralized controller design method based on the stabilizer idea. The method only requires identifying some closed-loop transfer functions and solving an H∞ optimization problem. The final partially decentralized controller is easy to implement and test in practice. Two partially decentralized controllers are designed for the ALSTOM gasifier benchmark problem, and simulation results show that they both meet the design specifications.