maximization of gasoline yield in fluidized catalytic cracking unit using fractional order imc controller

Optimization of the fcc unit is highly needed to improve the refinery’s economic benefits. the efficiency of operation of fccu is significant to meet the global demand for gasoline which can be accomplished through better operating conditions, controller design, optimization, etc. thus, the use of appropriate control techniques can move the fccu to the most profitable conditions. it is well-known that a small improvement in the product yield can result in significant monetary gain. with this motivation, the proposed work aims to maximize the gasoline yield by implementing fractional-order controllers for an industrial fccu process. the fccu is modeled as 2x2 mimo process which is derived from the dynamic model of fccu. to eliminate the interaction between the two loops, decouplers are designed. proportional integral (pi), internal model controller based pi (imcpi), fraction order pi (fopi), and fractional order internal model controller (foimc) are designed and implemented on the developed fccu 2x2 model. the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes is validated in terms of controller performances. to analyze the impact of the proposed controllers on the yield of gasoline (the most profitable component), a four-lump yield model is plugged with the fccu dynamic model. the mass fraction of gasoline is estimated for different controller structures and is found that the gasoline yield is increased by 0.21% with foimc which leads to a significant increase in profit.