Model predictive control of temperature of a PVC emulsion process

This paper discusses a method to improve the quality of temperature control of the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) emulsion reactor by implementing Model Pre dictive Control (MPC) and cascade control for this exponentially unstable p rocess with very non-linear behaviour. These methods were tested for different disturbances, and their performance s were compared with those obtained with classical proportional-integral-de rivative (PID) control. Significant improvement of temperature control was achieved using MPC. The process model used in MPC is presented.