A controller-observer scheme for adaptive control of chemical batch reactors

In this paper a novel adaptive controller-observer temperature control scheme for ideal chemical batch reactors is analyzed. The scheme is based on an adaptive observer for the estimation of the heat released by the reaction; tracking of the desired reactor temperature profile is achieved via a direct adaptive control scheme. Remarkably, the observer and the controller can be designed and tuned separately. The convergence of the overall scheme is analyzed by resorting to a Lyapunov-like argument, while the effectiveness of the approach is proven via computer simulations.