Control Strategies Evaluation for a Three-Phase Hydrogenation Catalytic Reactor

Hydrogenation reactions are widely applied industrially, and reactors have been designed for this purpose. It is a highly non-linear process, multivariable, with exothermic reaction. The model formulation was made focusing on the hydrogenation reaction of o-cresol to obtain the 2-methil-cyclohexanol, in the presence of a Ni/SiO2 catalyst. A competitive advantage in such kind of system (a commodity with large production scale) is to operate an optimal level of performance under control. The present work introduces an optimization problem and control in a simulation study of the reactor. The model allowed to reproduce the main characteristics of its dynamic, as well as the evaluation of the performance of different control strategies (Feedback, Feedforward or both strategies). The analysed controller was the linear model predictive (QDMC), and extensive analysis allow to identify which control strategy was more suitable to operate the reactor in an efficient and safe way. These informations are important for the real time integration implementation procedure.