Heuristic Adaptive Control of Waste Gas Exhausting in Coke Making

Abstract

Stabilization of the carbon monoxide (CO) in the waste gas is a common technical problem in many industrial plants. Stabilization can be performed continuously by regulating the fuel input or by regulating the exhaust gas draught. This paper proposes an adaptive control system for CO stabilization in waste gases based on a discrete controller. Heuristic adaptation of a discrete controller is based on continuous optimization of controller parameters. The advantage of this solution is that the control system does not need to perform the identification of the controlled system repeatedly. The parameters of the controller are dynamically optimized during the production process. By regulating the under-pressure, we change the amount of air supplied to the combustion chambers, which affects the combustion of gaseous fuel and also the concentration of CO in the waste flue gas. The control algorithm was verified for the combustion process in coke making. The proposed control achieved good stabilization quality when verified in simulation and also in an industry operation. The CO level at which the waste gas temperature was highest was selected as the setpoint. It was found that the stabilization of CO in waste gas to lower values is possible to achieve higher waste gas temperature and by that, higher temperatures in heating chambers.