This paper focuses on the study of a solid/gas thermochemical reaction between a porous reactive bed and vapor. The objective is to determine the operating mode, either closed or open system, that best suits the requirements of a thermochemical seasonal storage applied to house heating. These two working modes have been compared thanks to two validated 2D models. This study shows that for the c...

The performance of predictive controller is typically poor when the true plant evolution deviates significantly from that predicted by the model. A robust approach that considers model uncertainty explicitly is then needed. However, it is often difficult to find a single input profile that works for the range of uncertainty considered. Thus, multiple input profiles, i.e. one for each realizatio...

A new process for the continuous acetylation of lignocellulosic fiber has been developed. The fiber enters a pre-heated reactor and a specified concentration of acetic anhydride is applied. The fiber moves through the reactor at a rate needed for the acetylation to take place to the desired weight gain. The fiber then goes into a first stripper loop unit where the loop atmosphere consists of su...

Open loop dynamic stability is a major feature of operability. An optimization approach for open loop stable process design is presented. It is based on Lyapunov’s stability theory and formulated as an eigenvalue optimization problem. The resultant non-linear semi-definite programming problem is reformulated into an interior-point / logarithmic-barriertransformation programming problem. The pro...

In this paper, discrete time higher integer order linear transfer function models have been identified first for a 500 MWe Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) which has highly nonlinear dynamical nature. Linear discrete time models of the nonlinear nuclear reactor have been identified around eight different operating points (power reduction or step-back conditions) with least square estimato...