State estimation of methanol reactor using extended Kalman filter

The application of extended Kalman filter in a Lurgi-type methanol reactor has been investigated. The reactor has been modeled with a simplified homogeneous model. Mole content and temperature of reactor outlet stresm and activity of end point have been considered as states and measurements were taken from the model. Two dimensional state gradeints, stiffness of the set of partial differential-algebraic equations, extreme non-linearity and poor observiblity were of the problems we had in this reseaech. To apply the set partial differential-algebraic equations in the state space form, the equations were discretized respect to axial coordinate and partial derivatives at the end of the reactor were taken from the model. Tuning of the filter was done by trial and error procedure and after tuning, good agreement was obsereved compared to measurement data.

Keywords:

Extended , Kalman , Filter , Methanol , Estimation