A Study on Two degree of freedom Nonlinear PID Temperature Control of a Chemical Batch Reactor Process

Abstract

The Batch reactor is a popular equipment used in a variety of process industries to create a wide range of products. It is a sealed receptacle used for a non-continuous chemical reaction. Unlike a continuous reactor where materials constantly flow in and out, a batch reactor holds all the ingredients (reactants) from the start. This made extremely difficult by the complex and unpredictable behavior of chemical reactions and their tendency to become unstable. This thesis investigates the application of a Two degree of freedom Nonlinear PID controller for a Chemical Batch Reactor process. The batch reactor process is mathematically represented by the mass and energy balance within the reactor. The parameters of TDOF NPID’s settings were fine-tuned using a Particle Swarm Optimization technique. Its effectiveness was measured by calculating the Integral Absolute Error. The outcomes of simulations show how well the suggested controller maintains the desired temperature (setpoint tracking) and minimizes the impact of external temperature fluctuations (disturbance rejection). A comparative analysis with two existing works (PID and nonlinear PID controller) is investigated. Simulation results indicate that the proposed Two degree of freedom Nonlinear PID controller surpasses existing control systems. For setpoint tracking, it achieved a settling time of 25.51 with 28.46% overshoot and an IAE of 159.37. In terms of disturbance rejection, the controller exhibited a recovery time of 2.89, a peak overshoot of 0.05%, and an IAE of 0.05. The results were compared to those of a Nonlinear PID and a Conventional PID controller