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ON MODELLING, IDENTIFICATION, AND

CONTROL OF A REACTOR FOR PYROLYSIS
OF ORGANIC MATERIALS
D. Popovic*, G. Thiele", E. Wendland* and G. Schulz-Ekloff**
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Abstract. The increased sca rcity of fossil energy resources and the accelerated
worsening of environmental pollution make the pyrolisis of organic materials of
outstanding interest. For this reason, in the Institute of Automation Technology
of University Bremen a laboratory-scale reactor has been installed for pyrolisis
of coal originating from mechanically treated home waste.
In the reactor, the organic mass to be pyrolised is heated both indirectly, via
a set of heat exchan ging tubes, and directly, by recycling the burner exhaust gas.
The reactor is completely equipped by the conventional plant instrumentation and is
directly attached to a process control computer.
The major difficulty in control of the reactor is the simultaneous control of
temperature and pre ss ure at its head, e.g. of two strongly intercoupled process
variables. For this purpose, a multivariable two-input, two-output controller has
been designed, incorporating the mathematical model of the reactor, the parameters
of which have to be repeatedly estimated by the use of actual measured values.
The parameters of the heat balance equations are identified from temperature
profiles in stationary heating state, and the kinetic parameters of the pyrolisis
process via the an alys is of pressure changes under defined temperature programs.
Based on the results of parameter estimation, the control algorithms are used
for gas flow and gas pressure control, taking the interconnection between the
two process variabl es into account, considering the dynamic character of the heat
and material balances of the process. The parameter estimation and control algo-
rithms have been implemented in the process oriented, high-level programming
language PEARL.
It is to be pOinted out that the control problem considered here is at the time
being a crucial one, whose resolving should help to avoid the unsafe reactor
state primarily caused by exothermic steps in the pyrolisis of cellulose containing
biomass.
The preliminary res ults obtained by simulation promise a technically acceptable
solution of the problem and encourage further technical and algorithmic improve-
ments that are carried out in the Institute.

Keywords. Modelling; parameter estimation; multivarialbe control systems;

chemical variables control; coal pyrolisis; pressure-flow control.

INTRODUC TION (zeolites) at the reactor exit resulted in the

removal of heteroatoms (oxygen, chlorine, sulfur,
Pyrolisis reactors are widely used f or the recyc- nitrogen) from the compounds ~ an increase of
ling of polymers, rubber refu ses and waste s the arene fraction.
(VDI, 1985). The reactors basically re ~ uire a
sophisticated pressure and flow control system, Our activities have mainly been concentrated to-
especially the reactor f or py rolisis of garbages wards model building, parameter estimation and
and biomasses containing cellulose components, simulation of a small-sc ale laboratory reactor
this due to exothermic tempe ra ture jumps in the for coal pyrolys is, and especially t owards deter-
decomposition process. A transient exothermic mination of optimal heating strategy for the
state can be related to the fo rmation of arom a- reactor, based on its thermodynamic model. The
tics from the partial decomposition of cellu- model itself is a prerequisite for successful
lose fragments in an alkaline medium. The building of the corresponding ki r.etic model of
addition of alka li is often useful to bi l. d the the reactor, which includes the chemical part
sour gases as ch l orides, fluorides and suI fates of the process, taking part within the reactor.
(SchrUbbers and co lleagues, 1: 85) . Pyrolisis
and representative mun icipal wastes in the The primary cbjectives have bee ~ to design a
presen ce of li me gave product oils containing coal pyrolysis reactor, based on the same prin-
app. 50% aromatics and having cl eud points bet- ciples as this kind of reactors are really built
ween 245 - 265 ,: (He lms, 1985 ). The compact of in the process industry. For this purpose the
the pyrolysis products with an acidic catalyst reactor internal geometry was chosen as shown
in Fig. 1. Here, the main reaction part of the

:':1-,
reactor - in order to prevent the penetration of
the air into the reaction - is completely separa-
ted from the firing (burning) part of it. This
is achieved by means of a number of heat transfer
tubes that indirectly heat the pyrolysis chamber
of the reactor, so that no oxygen penetrates into
this chamber.
On the other side, additional tubes connect the
lower and the upper pyrolysis chamber of the
reactor and transport the product gas for further
processing.
The thermodynamic model derived is based on cor-
responding heat and mass balance equations. The
equations have been written for the following
reactor sUbSYStHl:
where n is the mole number in the gas phase, V the
free space of the reactor, p the reaction pres-
sure, t the time in sec, T the temperature in K,
Q the reactor outflow in mol· see' and R the gas
constant In J . mor'. K-'
If Q is zero, the rate of pressure increase cor-
responds to the increase of the number of mole-
cules in the gas phase by the chemical reaction.
Assuming a first order rate eq uati on
dPt/dt = k(~-P\) where k is the rate constant in
sand p the final pressure, and app lyi ng a
linear heating rate, i.e. dT/dt = B, than the
increase of the pressure with the temperature is
given by
dp, k
dT = T (p.- p,) (2 )

- bottom surface temperature distributed of

the pyrolysis chamber With the Arrhenius fun ccion
- temperature distribution within the other Ea
reactor walls
k = k o' exp (- R' T ) (3)

- surface temperature distribution in the heat where ko is the frequency fa ctor and E the act i-
transfer tubes vation energy in J. mo ~ . The l oga rithmic form
of eq. 2 can be used f or the estimation of the
- axial and a radial heat transfer within the unknown paraneters kO and E from
firing layer of the reactor.
Inr-1_. dp, ] = In ~ _ ~ (4)
In addition to this, a series of basic auxili ary P,-P, dT fl R·T
thermodynamic relations have been used.
This means, that a pre ss ure sensor can be used
The individual equations of the model, as being for the identification of the chemical process.
coupled with each other, are finally integrated
for the simulation purpose, the simulation it- For validation of the pyrol ysis ki neti cs model,
self has been carried out on a large-scale com- developed above, the f oll owing arguments hold.
puter SIEMENS 7880. It requires a software The non-linear increase of PT' star: ing from an
package of approximated 1 MB length that was initial state PI at TI , can now be seen from the
written in FORTRAN 77. Successive simulation
runs have been carried out in (Popovic, Kregel, integrated form of eq. (4 )
1989) in graphic form. For simulation purposes p, T
the following chemical composition of the gas
has been postulated: f~
PI
p-p
F T
= f ~I
T.
fl
. exp ( - ~
R'T
) dT (5 )

resulting in
- exhaustive gas: P,- p,
In - - -
P,- P,
~. ~ [T 2 exp (-~ )
N2 (78 %), H 2 0 (4.64 %), CO 2 (17.36 %) fl E" R'T

- pyrolysis gas: - T~ exp ( - :.~ )] (6 )

I

CH. (50 %), C. H,o (16 .66 % ) The maximum rate of pre ssure increase will be at
Cs H'2 (16.66 % ), Cl H,. (16.66 % ) the point of 63 % degree of decompos iti on of the
pyrolysis material. This f oll ows from the second
MODEL BUILDING OF THE PYROLYSIS REACTOR derivation of eq. (2)
2
d p _ ko[d(p,-p,) (Ea)
Kinetics of the Pyrolysis dT2 - ~ dT exp - R.T
When deSigning the pressure control of a pyroly-
sis reactor working with a heat-up program, the
non-l i near increase of the pressure by pyrolysis + (p, - p,) :.dT2 ex p ( - : \ ) ] (7)
product molecules in the gas phase, due to the Setting d'p/dT' = 0 in eq . ( 7) and combining it
temperature or the time increase, respectively, with eq . (21, gives at the maximum
should be considered. The increase of product
molecules ifself corresponds to the exponential
increase of the reaction rate with the tempera- (8)
ture.
The overall gas phase mass bal ance for the reac- This, inserted into eq. (6) , gives at the maximum
tor, in which the pressure changes, due to the In p, - p, n w: = - - ; - exp (~ )
decomposition of 3 solid material and the in- PF-P, T III <1 X R·Tm ,1X
crease of product gas phase molecules, are in-
cluded, can be given by
[T~, ,,~ exp(R~; )-TI2exp(:~TJ] (9)
r n.l :,,\ I
dn V dp dp or
(1)
Tt R' T dt - Q dt
In p, - p,-; , ( 10)
- 1
p, - P,
The fraction of non-pyrolized material at the of pressure subsystem, as well as the correspond-
maximum is therefore ing transfer-functions SP' Mp and Rp for its
actuator, sensor and controller. Furthermore, in
P. - PT"""
P. - P,
" ---L
e
2 37 %
I U)
the lower part at Fig. 2, the flow-part of the
model is shown, containing the transfer-function
This result confirms the assumption of first or-
der pyrolysis ki netics, made above. (16 )

Simplified Model for Pressure-Flow-Control of the of the flow subsystem as well as the corresponding
p*rolysls Process transfer-functions Sq ,M q and Rq for its actuator ,
T e hymcdynamics of the coal pyrolysis reactor sensor and controller (Koch, Wendland, 1988).
will for control purposes be described by the
first order nonlinear di ff erential equation
PARAMETER ESTIMATION AND OPTIMAL
p=k!Q+q-Q
r d,r out
+Q)
ind
112 a) CONTROLLER-DESIGN
In the following, the development of a multi-
whereby variable pressure and flow controller for a
pyrolysis reactor, aiming at removal the pressure
QDU t= AlII)' ~
r ou t
(12 b) shock, due to the transient exothermic state of
the reactor, is described.
q = AIy) . rp-;.If-
re
pr (12 c) Continuous-time PlO Control With Heuristically
Selected Controller Parameters
and
In order to get a justification for further ana-
lysis, digiti zed form of continuous-time PlO and
Q=flT,p) (12 d) PI pressure and flow controllers, respectively,
d,r r
the parameters of which have been heuristically
holds. selected, has been implemented in process control
computer, shown in the lower part of Fig. 1. From
In the eqs. (12a) to (12d), q is a hot gas flow the results, presented in Fig. 3, the two-input,
for direct heating of the material to be pyro- two-output process can be eventually stabilized
lized. This gas is driven by the pressure Pre f for re 1 atively large input changes, despite of
neglection of nonlinear character of the plant,
and is controlled via position y of respective and disregarding the pyrolysis kinetics. However
valve. Qdir and Qi~d describe the pyroly s is in order to guarantee some pre-defined quality ,
yield flow caused by direct and indirect heating, of stability, a systematic controller-design has
respectively. In the first phase of model buil- to be used.
ding Qind will be assumed to be constant. Further- Controller Design for Two-Input, Two-Output Plant
more, the eq. (12d ) is a consequence of the pyro-
lysis kinetics developed in the last section, Control-strategy for non-linear plant. In spite
whereby Qout is the assumed total reactor out- of the nonllnearltles In the plant dynamics,
linear controller-design shall be used for reasons
flow at atmospheric pressure Pou t. Pr is the of simplicity. This implies the use of the ade-
reactor pressure, controlled by output valve quate linearized version of the mathematical model
pos ition x, and T represents the process tempera- (11) at each temporary actual operating point. If
ture In the reactor. Finally, K is a constant the assumption of small deviations around the
factor of suitable unit. operating point does no longer hold, for instance
due to the time-variant pyrolysis kinetics, a
For small deviations of system variable s around switch-over to a suitable operating point model
the operating pOint, equations (1 2) become has to be carried out by a respective parameter
scheduling algorithm. Global stability can be
(13 ) guaranteed by a supervision algorithm, switching
to a robust controller, if necessary.

with Linear controller desi~n. As a further simplifi-

cation, the adquate sI O-Controllers should be
(14 a) designed. One design method could, for example,
be to decouple the two sub-systems and to design
controllers for the two decoupled SISO sub-systems
(14 b) independently. However, this can result in large
control-amplitudes needed violating the assumption
of small work signals.
( 14 c)
A more suitable design way would be to take the
internal system couplings into account and to
Fig. 2 represents the block-diagram, e.g. the iteratively improve the controller parameters
structure of the syste~ hydrodynamical model, in a repeated alternated controller design for
based on the transfer fun ction the two re spective sub-systems, as suggested in
(Knapp und colleagues, 1988).
In our case, as shown in Fig. 4, the pressure sub-
(15 )
system is used as the fir st iteration step, and
_ 1_ . 5 + the identified dynamics are influenced by the
k·C 2 open flow sub-system. In the next i t eration step
a controller for the flow sub-system will be
designed, this time being coupled with the
pressure sub-system and controlled by the pres-
sure controller from the first iteration step
(Fig. 5).
Parameter estimation method used. It is with
respect to the achIevable numerIc accuracy pre-
ferable to simultaneously estimate the smallest
number of parameters, for instance the n denomi-
nator coefficients of a n-th order transfer-func-
tion. This can be done by applying an impulse-in-
put as system eXitation, and by using the Prony-
Method for parameter estimation (Thiele, 1979;
Schnarre, Heine, 1988). If a physically realiz-
able step-input is applied instead, the parameter
estimation can be based on differences
y(kT~) - y((k-1)T ) of the step-response-values
a controller parameters in eq. (18). Fig. 9 shows
at finite sample times kT a and (k-1)T a rather
than on the values y(kT a ) themselves. This in
~act compensa~es for the additional pole at z=1,
IndUCIng the Increase of number of denominator
coefficients by one.
With the exception of the first iteration-step
of the design procedure, i.e. the first identifi-
cation of the pressure-subsystem, a reduced-order
model has to be identified due to numerical re-
strictions. To further numerically robustize the
parameter estimation, we will not use the Frony-
Method for estimation of the residues of the
transfer-function, but suppose a transfer-func-
tion without any zeros and determine the gain of
the plant by measurements.
Controller-design-method. For parameter design
of Plo-controller the magnitude optimum criterion
(Folliger, 1979) is used. Here, determination of
the three regulator parameters is based on the
identified transfer function of the plant. For
this purpose, a set of algebraic equations has
to be solved. The design-procedure significantly
simplifies for models without zeros.
Implementation of control software. Up to the
tIme beIng, a descretlzed versIon of the conti-
nuous-time PID-controller, described above has
been implemented, in which also the anti-r~set
wind-up (Fig. 6) (FuB, JUrgens , 1988) has been
taken into account. A program package has been
developed in modular, easy meintainable form
(Fig. 7), and has been implemented in the pro-
cess-oriented programming language PEARL (DIN,
1981). The language was chosen fJr the reason of
its easy to handle multi-tasking facilities thus
being the best suited programming language to
schedule the necessarily concurrent tasks of C8n -
trol,measurement, identification, and design by
the application engineer. The program modules
are designed in problem-oriented form, with the
respective tasks and procedures incorporated into
them.
Preliminary Experimental Results and Problems to
be Solved
Nonlinear rlant characteristics. In Fig. 7 the
measured pant-gaIn Ks and the time-constant T,
of the pressure subsystem is given, showing clea r-
ly the operating dependency of the plant-para-
meters.
In Table 1 the identified time-constant of the
plant (T,) is shown together with the time-
constants of the actuator (T,) and the pressure-
sensor (T 1) (FuB, JUrgens, 1988) for comparison,
showing that the sensor- and actuator-dynamics
In the model of pressure sub-system are independ-
ent of the operating point.
Dynamics of the controlled system. For the
operatIng pOInt of 40 %of the full-scale, the
controller-design gives the continuous-time PID-
controller parameters
Kp 7,357
TN 0,9886 sec ( 18)
TV 0,1743 sec
In order to demonstrate the controller efficiency,
the open-loop St2P response of the pressure sub-
system in Fig. 9 should be compared with the step
response of regulated pressure sub-sytem using the
the step response without and with anti-rest wind-
up option using a 10% step with respect to full-
scale reactor pressure. It can be seen that the
time-constant of the closed system is approximatly
1/3 of the open-loop system. The overshoot can
furthermore be reduced significantly by taking
care of anti-reset wind-up.
Problems to be solved. The next step to be taken
IS the parameter estImation of the flow sub-system
including its actuator and sensor. The transfer '
function will here be heavily influenced by the
connected regulated pressure sub-system, so that
parameter est imati on of a reduced-order model, has
to be carrIed out. On the other side, it could
happen that complex poles of the system have to
be estimated, which eventually can influence the
convergence of the controll er design.
CONCLUSIONS
In the peper, the problems of mathemtical model
building ~ nd simultaneous pressure and flow con-
trol of a coal pyrolysis reactor, built at the
I~stitute of Automation Technol ogy of the Univer-
sIty of Bremen, W.-Germany, have been discussed.
After short description of the thermodynamic
reactor model (Popovic, Kregel, 1989), the basic
kinetic relations ha ve ceen presented and their
application to the validation of the fraction
of non-pyrolyzed mater ial cemons trated.
Based on a simplified pressure-to-flow reactor
model, a multivariable controller has been
devel cped for simultaneous control of both process
variables which incorporate some adaptive fea-
tures, important for flow and pressure control
under changing operating conditions of the reactor.
The controller has been implemented, as software,
In the programming language PEARL and has been
run on a Krupp-Atlas KAE 1300 process-computer.
However, as indicated above, there are still some
algorithmic problems to be solved, especially
the problem of simplification of the controller,
based on a simplified process model.
REFERENCES
DIN 66253 (1981, 1982, 1,989). Programming Language
PEARL : Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Beuth-Verlag,
Berlln.
Follinger, O. (1979). Regelungstechnik. Verlag
AEG-Telefunken, BerlIn.
FuB, W., and D. JUrgens (1988). Entwurf eines ge-
EI£n€ten PID-Regelungsalgorlthmus fur den
Druckreselkrels elnes pyrolasereaktors kombi-
nlert mlt elnem entsprechen en Parameter-Ent-
wurfsprogramm. TheSIS, UnIversIty of Bremen,
InstItute of Automation Control.
Helms, H. (1985 ). Die Herstellung von aromaten-
reichen Produktgemlschen aus Blomasse durch
pyrolyse. Diplom-Thesls, UnIversIty of Bremen.
Knapp, T., R. Kofahl, K. Peter, and R. Isermann
 (1988). Synthese dezentraler MehrgroBenrege-
lungen mlt parameterada tlven Verfahren. In
au er E., n ormatl Fec er lC te, vol.
167, Springer-Verlag, Berlin. pp. 594-604.
Koch, E., and E. Wendland (1988). Zur Modellbil-
dung und Regelun eines P rolysereaktors o In
• 0POVIC . , rocee Ings 0 0 loqium
of Automation. (to be published).
Popovic, D., and G. Kregel (1989). Model Building 80 q
and Simulation of a Reactor for Coal Pyroly- I
SIS. In Proc. 14th IFIP Conf. on System I
MOOelling and Optimization, Leipzig, GDR. (to I
be published).
Heine, R., and T. Schnare (1988). Implementation, 60 :
praktische Durchfuhrung und Auswertung der I
Parameterschatzung elnes pyrol se-Reaktors I
1
zu dessen Inbetrlebnahme mltte seInes Pro-
,e0rechners In PEARL. ThesIs, UnIversIty of
I
I
Bremen, InstItute of Automation Control. 40 I
Schrubbers, H., G. Schulz-Ekloff, H.-G. Deppner, I ~

~~:L-~__~__L-~__ L-~ ~~
and D. Popovic (1985). Modelluntersuchungen
zur Bindung saurer Gase in Brennstoff aus -L__ __
Mull. Mull und Abfall, 17, pp. 258-268.
Thiele, G. (1979). Zur IdenTIfi kation rnit Hilfe o 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
des Prony-Verfahrens bel fehlerbehafteten Time(s)
Messungen. FS Dynamlsche Systeme, UnIversity
of Bremen, Report No. 8.
VDI (1985). Statusbericht Thermische Verfahren
der Abfallwlrtschaft o VDI-Gesellschaft
Energletechnlk, Bonn. pp. 1-390.

60

40 q

~~~~~~~~~~
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Time(s)
Fig. 3. Step responses of pressure p (a) and flow
q (b) dynamics of pyrolysis reactor with
L-________ J
Process Con tr ol Com puter

Fig. 1. Simplified representation of reactor

.
heuristically chosen controller parameters.

for coal pyrolysis with computer-control

of gas flow and reactor pressure.

6q

llq
Fig. 4. Parameter-estimation in the first itera-
f I0 ... - contro l- la op tion-step of controller-design.

Fig. 2. Block-diagram repres entation of the

linearized reactor model_
 6Pr
[mbar1

Fig. 5. Block-diagram of sub-system to be

identified in the second iteration-
step of controller-design.

r----------
Fig. 8. Response of the open-loop ~ re s sure sub-
system with respect to a x-input step
corresponding to a pressure-step of
20 47V_ 20 mbar.
W(kl

~ lI~
[mbar1

from AI D-Converter to A/D- 20

Conv erter

Fig. 6. Principle of PlO-algor it hm with anti -

reset wi nd-up • I
I
I
I
10 I
ks T3 [sl I
[mbar/mAl 1,5 I
I
I
t
OL-~L- __ ~ __ ~ __- L_ _ ~ _ _~~~_
100 1,0
o 2 3 4
80 Fig. 9. Step- respo nse for closed-loop pressure
sUb-system (Kp = 7,375 ; TN = 0,9686 sec;
60 TV = 0,1743 ,ec) with out (a) and with
0,5
40 (b ) a n t i-re 5~ wi nd -up.

20 Table 1 Tim e c o n s t a nt s o f press ure s ub sys t e m s in

de pe nde nce o f o pe ratin g point
O~-r--~~--~~-----
o 20 40 60 80 100 [%1 Ope r atin g poi nt Tl (se n so r) T2 (actu at o r) T3 (pl a nt)
I

Fig. 7. Plant gain (k s ) and plant time-constant 20 % O. 222 sec 0.07 sec 0 . 400 sec
(T,) of pressure sub-system as a function 40 % 0.222 sec 0. 0 7 spc 0. 74 0 s ec
of percentage of full-scale reactor 60 % 0 .222 sec 0 .07 sec 1. 0 75 s ec
pressure (100% ~ 200 mbar). 0.22 2 sec 0 . 0 7 sec 1. 4 70 sec
80 %