PREDICTIVE CONTROL OF A CIRCULATING FLUIDIZED-BED COMBUSTOR

The acceptance of CFB combustion in process and utility industries for generating steam has been increasing because of its ability to burn a wide variety of fuels efficiently and in an environmentally acceptable manner. Work on control of this emerging technology is beginning to appear. This paper evaluates the performance of two predictive control algorithms (the Dynamic Matrix Control and a simplified version) for control of temperature and pressure drop in a pilot scale CFB combustor. The robustness of the algorithms is studied on a model of the CFB combustor. The experimental and simulation results show the suitability of the two control algorithms for control of the CFB combustor.