Easy programmable controller for hybrid exothermic reactor

The new pilot plant designed and carried out in the Institute of Automatic Control represents the exothermic stirred tank reactor which can operate in both batch or continuous mode. Proposed plant represents a programmable system, in which the reactor, the temperature sensors, the flow meters and the control valves with actuators are the real industrial equipment, whereas the heat produced due to the reaction taking place in the reactor is simulated by controlled electric heater. This paper describes a specialised, easy programmable controller for this kind of control. A large class of nonlinear processes can be easily realised, and that is why the pilot plant is useful for testing of standard and advanced controllers.