An integrated system for supervision and economic optimal control of mineral processing plants

This work tackles the problem of dynamically optimising the performance of a mineral concentration plant, taking into account economic profits and tec hnical constraints. The paper proposes a two-level control strategy with re gulatory control and the optimisation of an objective function. The regulat ory control employs linear model based multivariable predictive controllers with constraints on controlled and manipulated variables, while the optimi ser maximises the economic profits using non-linear dynamic models and line ar constraints. The results, drawn from simulations, show the proposed stra tegy to lead to a significant improvement in economic profits when compared against an exclusively regulatory strategy. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.