Simulation and Advanced Control of the Continuous Biodiesel Production Process

The biodiesel industry is characterized by high fluctuations of the prices and a multiplicity of biological raw material sources. On the other hand, there exist strict quality standards imposed on the final product. Because of these factors, it is important for biodiesel plants to run their processes in the most efficient manner in order to stay competitive. One of the ways to achieve this is the use of model based approaches for design, operation, and control. In this work, that focuses on the latter two areas, a first-principle dynamic model of the main units of a biodiesel plant is developed and applied in two situations: for open-loop simulation as well as for process optimization. The former demonstrates the response observed in the process variables when the plant is subjected to a series of disturbances in the input variables. The later is built in the context of nonlinear model predictive control that determines the optimal profiles of the manipulated variables taking into account process and quality constraints as well as the associated reactant and energy costs.