NONLINEAR ESTIMATION STRATEGIES FOR PARAMETER-ESTIMATION IN CHEMICAL REACTORS

The design of simple nonlinear observer-based estimators for the on-li ne estimation of the reactions' rates in chemical reactors is presente d. It is also shown that these estimates can be used for the on-line e stimation of the unmeasured components' concentrations. The proposed e stimators do not assume or require any model for the reactions' kineti cs and are very successful in accurately estimating these variables. T hey are presented in both continuous-and discrete-time versions. A mai n characteristic of these estimators lies in the easiness of their imp lementation and in particular their calibration. Indeed, their tuning is reduced to the calibration of a single parameter and this is true r egardless of the number of reactions' rates to be estimated. The perfo rmances of the proposed estimators are highlighted through experimenta l results. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.