Model Predictive Control of the Melt Index in High-Density Polyethylene(HDPE) Process

In polyolefin processes melt index (MI) is the most important controlled variable indicating product quality. Because of the difficulty in the on-line measurement of MI, a lot of MI estimation and correlation methods have been proposed. In this work a new dynamic MI estimation scheme is developed based on system identification techniques. The empirical MI estimation equation proposed in the present study is derived from the 1st-order dynamic models. Effectiveness of the present estimation scheme was illustrated by numerical simulations based on plant operation data including grade change operations in high density polyethylene (HDPE) processes. From the comparisons with other estimation methods it was found that the proposed estimation scheme showed better performance in MI predictions. Using the model predictive control method based on the present dynamic MI estimation model, MI values are estimated and compared with those of MI setpoints. From the numerical simulation of the proposed control system, it was found that significant reduction of transition time and the amount of off-spec during grade changes were achieved.