Neural network based control of an absorption column in the process of bioethanol production

Gaseous ethanol may be recovered from the effluent gas mixture of the sugar cane fermentation process using a staged absorption column. In the present work, the development of a nonlinear controller, based on a neural network inverse model (ANN controller), was proposed and tested to manipulate the absorbent flow rate in order to control the residual ethanol concentration in the effluent gas phase. Simulation studies were carried out, in which a noise was applied to the ethanol concentration signals from the rigorous model. The ANN controller outperformed the dynamic matrix control (DMC) when step disturbances were imposed to the gas mixture composition. A security device, based on a conventional feedback algorithm, and a digital filter were added to the proposed strategy to improve the system robustness when unforeseen operating and environmental conditions occured. The results demonstrated that ANN controller was a robust and reliable tool to control the absorption column.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Eyng,Eduardo, Silva,Flávio Vasconcelos da, Palú,Fernando, Fileti,Ana Maria Frattini
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Instituto de Tecnologia do Paraná - Tecpar 2009
Online Access:http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-89132009000400020
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Summary:Gaseous ethanol may be recovered from the effluent gas mixture of the sugar cane fermentation process using a staged absorption column. In the present work, the development of a nonlinear controller, based on a neural network inverse model (ANN controller), was proposed and tested to manipulate the absorbent flow rate in order to control the residual ethanol concentration in the effluent gas phase. Simulation studies were carried out, in which a noise was applied to the ethanol concentration signals from the rigorous model. The ANN controller outperformed the dynamic matrix control (DMC) when step disturbances were imposed to the gas mixture composition. A security device, based on a conventional feedback algorithm, and a digital filter were added to the proposed strategy to improve the system robustness when unforeseen operating and environmental conditions occured. The results demonstrated that ANN controller was a robust and reliable tool to control the absorption column.