PLC-based fuzzy controller for sterilizing process in crude palm oil Mill

Sterilizing is the most critical process in the entire CPO chain of production. A well-maintained sterilizing process results on increasing performance of subsequent processes. Unfortunately, many sterilizing process are still operated manually, thus the performance of human operators determine the quantity and the quality of produced CPO. Imprecision on observation and large time delay between process steps decrease the production capacity and efficiency. Some control systems used in sterilizer only control timing for opening/closing inlet, exhaust and condensate valve for each step in sterilizing process, but not the pressure to be expected. As a consequence, over or under cooking often occurred. In order to solve this problem and to increase efficiency fuzzy controller using PLC equipped with fuzzy module was developed. A PLC-based control system called PLC Sawit Fuzzy Controller (PSFC) is designed to optimize this process and to manage the sterilizing station. Copyright (C) 2001 IFAC.