Closed-loop control of physical properties in an industrial polymerization process

Control of polypropylene stereospecificity is difficult because of the complex and nonlinear kinetics. Recent advances in instrumentation provide an on-line measurement, which can be exploited for improved product quality through closed-loop control. Linear and nonlinear model predictive controllers (MPG) are developed and compared with the traditional SPC. Plants results demonstrate the improvement gained from linear MPG; simulation results show potential improvement from nonlinear MPG, development of which is in progress.