Adaptive control of paste drying in spouted bed using the GPC algorithm

Abstract

Spouted bed is an equipment reasonable investigated for drying of many and different materials ranging from granules to pastes and suspensions. This work presents an implementation and tests of an advanced control strategy (GPC) on a spouted bed dryer. Water was used as the ideal paste for tests. A microcomputer PC-486 type was used to maintain humidity and temperature set points of air in the dryer by manipulating electric power of heat exchanger and paste feed flow rate. An instrumentation was set-up with different sensors, interface and final control elements for the process. The tests were carried out with pure water as ideal paste. Stability and performance analysis of the control strategy were accomplished. A stable controller was obtained which encouraged us to investigate this control strategy in the drying of other pastes too.