Optimal control policy for tracking optimal progression of temperature in a batch reactor – Some insights into the choice of objective function

Abstract

This paper deals with the development of an optimal control strategy for control of a batch reactor in which an exothermic reversible reaction takes place. A new optimal control policy is proposed in this work to force the reactor operation track the Optimal Progression of Temperature and achieve a maximum end point conversion. This is done by including a term in the Objective function that puts a weight on the overall error between the reactor temperature and the optimal temperature. Further, by proper choice of weight assigned to the control moves in the objective function, the optimal control policy is forced to bypass Singular Arc . Control vector iteration method is used to solve the optimal control problem. The control policy is tested using the batch reactor data reported in the literature. The results show that the optimal control policy proposed in this work is able to track the optimal progression of temperature and achieve maximum end point conversion in the batch reactor.