Anaerobic Digestion Processes Controller Tuning Using Fictitious Reference Iterative Method

Abstract

In this paper, a new data-based procedure, Fictitious Reference Iterative Tuning, is proposed to control the anaerobic digestion process. In the first phase, the proposed approach uses input-output data from the anaerobic digestion process obtained by using a controller with initial parameters that ensure loop stability. In the second phase, the situation in which the input-output data are obtained in a closed-loop was also analyzed. Therefore, the Fictitious Reference Iterative Tuning method was used to obtain: a PI controller, which was tuned on the basis of an iterative, convergent and monotonous process and a PID controller, which was tuned on the basis of a divergent iterative process. The results obtained confirm the validity of the proposed Fictitious Reference Iterative Tuning method for the control of the anaerobic digestion process.