STABILITY OF POLYMERIZATION REACTORS USING I O LINEARIZATION AND A HIGH-GAIN OBSERVER/

We develop an observer-based control structure for a standard nonlinea r model of polymerization reactors. We use a classical input/output li nearization technique for the controller synthesis, and prove theoreti cally its global asymptotic stability. Because our stabilizing feedbac k laws require knowledge of the state of the model, we solve the estim ation problem by designing an exponentially converging observer, the e quations of which are close to those of the extended Kalman filter. Fi nally, by proving a nonlinear separation principle, we conclude that o ur observer-based control structure is capable of stabilizing polymeri zation reactors. As a consequence, polymerization reactors can be oper ated even on open-loop-unstable steady states.