COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT CONTROL METHODS FOR AN INDUSTRIAL NICKEL SMELTER ROASTER OFF-GAS SYSTEM

A roaster off-gas system constitutes an important component of the Nickel smelter operations, as it ensures the smelter operations in accordance with environmental regulations. It is important to control the off-gas pressure at the setpoint. In this paper, several control methods commonly used in industry are evaluated and compared via simulations. Comparison shows that the feedback control combining the conventional PI control with the steady state feedforward term can provide robust but effective control in rejecting the disturbance. The control method provides an improved control performances with an easily implementable form.