ARTICLE IN PRESS

Control Engineering Practice 17 (2009) 13291337

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Control Engineering Practice

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conengprac

Adaptive nonlinear control of pH neutralization processes

using fuzzy approximators
Shahin Salehi a, Mohammad Shahrokhi b,, Ali Nejati c
a
Department of Measurement and Automation, Petroleum University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
b
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Department, Sharif University of Technology, PO Box 11365-9465, Azadi Avenue, Tehran, Iran
c
Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

a r t i c l e in fo abstract

Article history: In this paper, an adaptive control scheme, based on fuzzy logic systems, for pH control is addressed. For
Received 30 November 2008 implementation of the proposed scheme no composition measurement is required. Stability of the
Accepted 15 June 2009 closed-loop system is established and it is shown that the solution of the closed-loop system is
Available online 7 July 2009
uniformly ultimately bounded and under a certain condition, asymptotical stability is achieved.
Keywords: Effectiveness of the proposed controller is tested through simulation and experimental studies. Results
pH control indicate that the proposed controller has good performances in set-point tracking and load rejection
Adaptive control and much better than that of a tuned PI controller.
Fuzzy logic systems & 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Nonlinear control

1. Introduction invariant concept and showed that it has a superior regulation

The need for pH control in chemical and biological processes has
arisen signicantly in industries such as wastewater treatment,
electrohydrolysis, pharmaceuticals and many other industrial
plants. Due to highly nonlinear characteristics, time-varying nature,
variations in titration curve and inaccessible state measurements,
pH control is a challenging problem. Consequently, pH control is
considered as a benchmark for modeling and control of highly
nonlinear processes.
To apply a model-based control scheme, availability of an
accurate process dynamic model is inevitable. McAvoy, Hsu, and
Lowenthal (1972) derived a mathematical model from material
balance and chemical equilibria. Gustafsson, Skrifvars, Sandstrom,
and Waller (1995) proposed a pH model for control purposes that
takes into account several phenomena such as precipitation and
formation of chemical complexes. Wright and Kravaris (1991)
introduced the strong acid equivalent concept and used it for pH
control. Since pH process has a nonlinear dynamic, standard linear
control techniques are not suitable for controlling this type of
process.
For pH neutralization process, many nonlinear controllers have
been reported. A nonadaptive control strategy based on strong
acid equivalent has been developed (Wright & Kravaris, 1991;
Wright, Soroush, & Kravaris, 1991). Gustafsson and Waller (1992)
proposed an adaptive nonlinear controller based on reaction
 Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 21 6165419; fax: +98 21 6022853.
E-mail address: shahrokhi@sharif.edu (M. Shahrokhi).
performance over the conventional PID. Henson and Seborg
(1994) proposed an adaptive inputoutput linearizing control
strategy for pH neutralization process to account for unmeasured
buffering changes. They assumed that reaction invariants are
available, which is not true in practical applications. Sung and
Lee (1995) used set-point change for online identication of
titration curve and tuning PID controller accordingly. Narayanan,
Krishnaswamy, and Rangaiah (1997) have developed an adaptive
controller based on nonlinear internal model control strategy and
strong acid equivalent technique. Wright, Smith, and Kravaris
(1998) proposed a nonlinear pH controller using an on-line
identication algorithm for estimation of titration curve. Yoon,
Yang, and Kang (2002) presented an adaptive backstepping state
feedback controller, and shown stability of the proposed scheme.
Multi-model adaptive control schemes have been also developed
and evaluated for nonlinear pH neutralization processes (Boling,
Seborg, & Hespanha, 2007; Dougherty & Cooper, 2003; Galan,
Romagnoli, & Palazoglu, 2004; Pishvaie & Shahrokhi, 2000).
Several other adaptive nonlinear pH controllers have been
proposed in the relevant literature (Gustafsson & Waller, 1983;
Jutilia, 1983; Li & Biegler, 1990; Pajunen, 1985; Panish & Brosilow,
1988; Williams, Rhinehart, & Riggs, 1990).
As an alternative method to overcome the nonlinearities and
time-varying characteristics of pH processes, Norquay, Palazoglu,
and Romagnoli (1998) used a Wiener model for representing the
nonlinear behavior of pH process and designed a model predictive
controller for this process. Kalafatis, Wang, and Cluett (2005)
have used the Wiener model and feedforward technique for pH
control. Tan, Lu, Loh, and Tan (2005) have also employed a Wiener

0967-0661/$ - see front matter & 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.conengprac.2009.06.007
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
1330 S. Salehi et al. / Control Engineering Practice 17 (2009) 13291337

model-based controller to regulate the pH level of a weak-acid

strong-base neutralization process.
Besides, fuzzy logic systems and neural networks have been
used for designing pH controllers. A fuzzy control algorithm
combined with TakagiSugeno (TS) fuzzy model (Pishvaie &
Shahrokhi, 2006), a fuzzy gain scheduled control scheme
(Regunath & Kadirkamanathan, 2001), a fuzzy self-tuning PI
control (Babuska, Oosterhoff, Oudshoorn, & Bruijn, 2002), fuzzy
sliding mode control (Shahraz & Boozarjomehry, 2009), fuzzy
internal model control (Edgar & Postlethwaite, 2000; Han, Han, &
Guo, 2006), neural networks and adaptive controller (Krishnapura
& Jutan, 2000), PID controller using linearization through neural
networks (Chen & Huang, 2004), a linear internal model controller
optimized by a genetic algorithm (Mwembeshia, Kenta, & Salhi,
2004), a multiple model predictive controller based on TS
fuzzy model (He, Cai, & Li, 2005), iterative nonlinear model Fig. 1. pH neutralization process.

predictive control (Cueli & Bordons, 2008) and a model-free

learning control based on reinforcement learning algorithms equation:
(Syaiea, Tadeoa, & Martinez, 2007) have been reported for pH
X
n
control. Some other works in this category can be found in the ai pHxi ApH 0 2
literature (Karr & Gentry, 1993; Loh, Looi, & Fong, 1995; Qin & i1
Borders, 1994). where A(pH) 10pH10pH14 and ai is a function of dissociation
There are some difculties associated with pH control schemes constants. For detailed information, the interested readers are
proposed in the literature as follows. Many designs need state referred to the work of Wright and Kravaris (1991).
variables for implementation (such as feedback linearization
technique), which usually are not available in practice. On
the other hand, some designs are practical but very complex 3. Adaptive nonlinear controller design
and require time-consuming calculations. Finally, there are some
control schemes including a large number of tuning parameters
In this section, an adaptive nonlinear control design for pH
that makes its application impractical. Therefore, designing a
control of the system given by Eqs. (1) and (2) has been proposed
control scheme without the aforementioned drawbacks is moti-
and its stability proof has been provided.
vated for pH control.
For constructing the control law, the dynamic equation relating
In this paper a simple fuzzy adaptive pH controller, which has
input and output is needed. Differentiating Eq. (2) with respect to
few tuning parameters and requires only pH measurement for
time and doing some manipulations, yields:
implementation, has been proposed.
The designed adaptive controller is applied to control a pH dy
f x1 ; . . . ; xn ; y gx1 ; . . . ; xn ; yu 3
neutralization process experimentally. dt
The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 mathe- where y pH,
matical model of pH processes is presented. An adaptive control Pn
scheme for pH processes is proposed in Section 3. In Section 4, F i1 ai yci  xi
f x1 ; . . . ; xn ; y   Pn
effectiveness of the proposed controller is examined through V i1 dai y=dyxi dAy=dy
simulation and experimental studies and its performance is
and
compared with that of a tuned PI controller. In Section 5
Pn
conclusion is drawn. F i1 ai yai  xi
gx1 ; . . . ; xn ; y  Pn
V i1 dai y=dyxi dAy=dy

2. Mathematical model of pH processes

In this section, a pH process modeling is presented. The model
used in this paper is based on rst principles and introduced by
McAvoy et al. (1972). This model was extended to systems with an
arbitrary number of acids and bases by Gustafsson and Waller
(1983).
Consider pH neutralization in a continuous stirred tank reactor
(CSTR) shown in Fig. 1. The process stream is being neutralized by
adding a titrating stream. Assuming constant volume and perfect
mixing, the material balance results (Wright & Kravaris, 1991):
dxi
V Fci  xi ai  xi u; i 1; . . . ; n
dt
where xi is total ion concentration of the ith acidic or basic species
in the efuent stream, F is ow rate of process stream, V is volume
of CSTR, ai is total ion concentration of ith species in the titrating
stream, ci is total ion concentration of ith species in process
stream and u is ow rate of titrating stream (manipulated
variable). Neutralization equation is expressed by the following
To design a model-based controller f and g, should be known.
However, f and g are functions of some unknown time-varying
parameters and unavailable states xi. One way to tackle this
obstacle is to express f and g by their steady-state values and their
deviations from these steady states i.e. f fss+Df and g gss+Dg,
where fss and gss are the steady states of f and g at a specied pH
and Df and Dg are their deviations from corresponding steady-
state values. As a result, Eq. (3) becomes:
dy
fss Df gss Dgu 4
dt
1 The control error is dened as e yrefy, where yref is the
desired pH value.
Assumption 1. There exist positive constants cf and cg such that:
|Df|rcf|e| and |Dg|rcg|e|.
According to the universal approximation theorem (Wang, 1992,
1994, 1997), fss and gss can be approximated by fuzzy logic
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
S. Salehi et al. / Control Engineering Practice 17 (2009) 13291337 1331

systems. Using fuzzy logic systems and denoting approximators of 4. Evaluation of the proposed scheme
fss and gss by fss and g^ ss yields:
T
This section demonstrates effectiveness of the proposed adaptive
f^ ss yj~
yf ~ B y
yf ~ 5 control scheme for a benchmark pH control problem through
computer simulation and experimental studies. The process
T considered for evaluation of the proposed controller is described
g^ ss yj~
yg ~ Z y
yg ~ 6
as follows. The feed stream contains acetic and hydrochloric acids,
B and ~
where ~ Z are regressive vectors, and ~
y f and ~
y g are free which are titrated by sodium hydroxide. The tuning parameters of
parameter vectors. the proposed controller are chosen as: gf 5  104, gg 8  103,
k 1 for simulation and k 0.6 for experiments. Note that these
Remark 1. In above equations, center-average defuzzier, product parameters have been obtained via simulation through trail and
inference and singleton fuzzier have been used (Wang, 1992,
1994, 1997).
 
y f and ~
Let us dene the optimal parameter estimates ~ y g as Table 1
follows: Parameter values used in simulation.


y f argmin~y 2O supy2Oy Jf^ ss  fss J
~ 7 F 160 ml/min V 1000 ml uss;C0 87.75 ml/min
f f umin 0 ml/min a 0.04 M uss;C1 67.87 ml/min
umax 200 ml/min tvalve 1 s uss;C2 135.75 ml/min
 Concentration M C0 C1 C2
~
y g argmin~y g 2Og supy2Oy Jg^ ss  gss J 8
HCl 0.012 0.012 0.024
HAc (pKa 4.8) 0.01 0.005 0.01
where Of, Og and Oy denote the sets of suitable bounds on ~
yf , ~
yg
and y, respectively. Furthermore, the differences between the
optimal and actual parameter estimates are dened as:
~ 
y~ f ~
yf  ~
yf 9

~ 
y~ g ~
yg  ~
yg 10

The corresponding minimum approximation errors are given

by

wf f^ ss yj~
y f  fss 11


wg g^ ss yj~
y g  gss 12

The following control law based on the approximators (5) and

(6) is proposed for the pH system (4):

u g^ ss f^ ss ke y_ ref
1
13 Fig. 2. Feed stream titration curves used in the computer simulation study.

where k is a positive constant. By substituting (13) into (4) and

doing some manipulations, the error dynamic can be obtained as:
 
e_ ke f^ ss  f^ ss ~
y g  Df g^ ss  g^ ss ~
y g  Dgu w 14

where w wf+wgu. By using Eqs. (5), (6), (9) and (10), the above
equation can be rewritten as
T T
~
B y ~
e_ ke y~ f ~ y~ g ~
Z yu  Df  Dgu w 15

For updating ~
y f and~
y g the following adaptive laws are used:
_
~
y f gf ~
B ye 16

_
~
y g gg ~
Z yeu 17

where gf and gg are positive constants.

Theorem. If adaptive laws (16) and (17) are used in the control law
(13), then the solution of the closed-loop (15) is uniformly ultimately
bounded (UUB). In addition, if wAL2 the closed-loop system is
asymptotically stable.
Fig. 3. Load rejection response of the proposed scheme for changing feed
Proof of theorem is given in Appendix A. composition from C0 to C1.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
1332 S. Salehi et al. / Control Engineering Practice 17 (2009) 13291337

error. The fuzzy rules bases are:

for fss

Ri : if pH is Fi then f^ ss is yf ; i 1; 2; 3
i

for g^ ss
i
Ri : if pH is Fi then g^ ss is yg ; i 1; 2; 3

where Fi s are fuzzy variables, and yfi and ygi are fuzzy singleton
for the output in the ith rule. The output of the fuzzy system can
be expressed by Eqs. (5) and (6) for which ~ y y1 ; y2 ; y3 T , f f f f
~
y g y1g ; y2g ; y3g T , ~
B y B1 ; B2 ; B3 T and ~
Z y Z1 ; Z2 ; Z3 T with
m y
Zi Bi P3 Fi :
i1 mFi y

The following memberships are used:

8
>
> 1
>
> i1
>
> 1 e10y1
Fig. 4. Load rejection response of the proposed scheme for changing feed >
<
composition from C0 to C2. 1 1
mFi y  i2 18
>
> 1 e10y11 1 e10y1
>
>
>
> 1
>
: i3
1 e10y11

The initial fuzzy parameters are chosen as ~

y f 0 331 and
~
y g 0 3 . 31

4.1. Simulation results

The parameters used for simulation are listed in Table 1. For

Fig. 5. Set-point tracking response of the proposed scheme.
this system, three different feed stream compositions are chosen.
C0 is nominal composition and C1, C2 are less acidic and more
acidic respect to C0 and considered as loads. The corresponding
titration curves are shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 3 depicts the performance
of closed-loop system when the feed stream composition switches
from C0 to C1. As can be seen, load is rejected quite well and pH has
returned to its set-point after 5 min. To check the performance
of control system in the opposite direction, the inlet concentration
is changed from C0 to C2. Results for this case are shown in Fig. 4.
As can be seen, the proposed adaptive controller has a good
performance in load rejection. To examine the performance of

pH Sensor mV

Effluent
Stream 4~20 mA

Computer

USB Cable

USB
4~20 mA 0-10V,in
DAC-Lite

Acid Titrant
4~20 mA 0-10V,out
Tank Tank

PCT-10
Conditioner DAC Card
Electrical Console
PCT-16 pH

Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of the experimental set-up.

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S. Salehi et al. / Control Engineering Practice 17 (2009) 13291337 1333

proposed controller for set-point tracking, two subsequent 4.2. Experimental results
changes are applied to the set-point. The results are shown in
Fig. 5. As can be seen the set-point trajectory has been tracked To evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme experi-
satisfactorily. mentally, a bench-scale pH setup is used. The schematic diagram
of the system is shown in Fig. 6. The process consists of acid and
base streams, being fed into the neutralization process tank. The
efuent pH is the measured variable. The base ow rate is
Table 2 regulated by a motorized control valve, while the acid stream is
Parameter values used in experiment. controlled manually. The liquid level in the tank is kept constant
F 160 ml/min V 960 ml
by an overow. The process is monitored and controlled by a
umax 200 ml/min Sampling time 1 s laptop computer through an USB I/O card. The parameters of the
Diluted in 4 l water C0 (ml) C1 (ml) C2 (ml) a (g) experimental system are given in Table 2. The sample time has
HCl (37%) 4 4 8 been set to 1 s. The main unmeasured load considered for this
HAc (100%) 2.3 1 2.3
study is variations of feed composition. The disturbances are
NaOH 6.4
applied by lling the acid tank with a new solution when the
previous one is consumed.
First, system has been run under nominal concentration
indicated by C0. When steady-state condition is obtained, the
feed concentration is switched to C1 and C2 in two separate runs.
The titration curves for nominal feed composition and C1 and C2
are shown in Fig. 7.
To have a base for comparison, rst the system pH is controlled
via a PI controller. For tuning the controller parameters, a step
change is applied to the system input and process output has been
obtained. A rst-order plus lag model is tted to the process
response. By using model parameters and Cohen & Coon tuning
method, controller parameters are obtained (Kc 0.4 and tI 60 s).
The integral term in PI controller equation has been approximated
by the trapezoidal integration rule. Since the sample time is 1 s
and process time constant has an order of minute, error caused by
numerical approximation method is minor. The performance of
the tuned PI controller has been tested for load rejection. Figs. 8
and 9 show the PI controller performances for changing acidic
concentration from C0 to C1 and C2, respectively. As can be seen,
Fig. 7. Feed stream titration curves used in the experimental study. controller responses are sluggish with considerable overshoot and

Fig. 8. Experimental PI controller load rejection response for changing feed composition from C0 to C1.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
1334 S. Salehi et al. / Control Engineering Practice 17 (2009) 13291337

Fig. 9. Experimental PI controller load rejection response for changing feed composition from C0 to C2.

Fig. 10. Experimental load rejection response of the proposed scheme for changing feed composition from C0 to C1.

undershoot. Therefore it can be concluded that the performance of
a tuned PI with xed parameters is not satisfactory due to
nonlinear characteristic of the process.
To illustrate the performance of the proposed controller, the
same loads are applied to the process. For digital implementation,
Eqs. (16) and (17) are solved using backward difference method.
The results are shown in Figs. 10 and 11. As can be seen, the
performance of the proposed controller is highly improved
compared to that of PI controller. It should be noted that the
PID controller performance can be improved by using the adaptive
version, but nding adaptive rules that guarantee the closed-loop
stability for such a nonlinear system is a difcult task. Finally, the
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S. Salehi et al. / Control Engineering Practice 17 (2009) 13291337 1335

Fig. 11. Experimental load rejection response of the proposed scheme for changing feed composition from C0 to C2.

Fig. 12. Experimental set-point tracking response of the proposed scheme.

proposed controller is examined for set-point tracking as shown
in Fig. 12. The result implies that the proposed controller tracks
the desired set-point trajectory quite well.
5. Conclusion
This work is an attempt to present an adaptive control scheme
for pH neutralization processes. To avoid measuring composition
which is a difcult task, the controller has been designed such
that no composition measurement is required. Meanwhile to cope
with uncertainties and unknown system nonlinearities, a fuzzy
logic system is employed as an approximator. The proposed
controller has few tuning parameters, simple design and can be
implemented easily. It has been shown that the solution of
the closed-loop system is UUB under proposed adaptive laws
and designed controller. Finally, effectiveness of the proposed
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1336 S. Salehi et al. / Control Engineering Practice 17 (2009) 13291337

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