High gain adaptive nonlinear observer for emulsion copolymerization process [Observador no lineal adaptativo de alta ganancia para procesos de copolimerización en emulsión]

An adaptive high-gain observer-based method for state estimation and lumped parameter estimation in copolymerization reactors is presented in this paper. One of the main features of this observer is that it uses an uncertain mathematical model of the process, whose uncertainty belongs to the multiplicative type. The performance of the proposed observer was firstly evaluated by means of numerical simulations and also by using experimental data obtained from a copolymerization reaction between styrene and butyl acrylate, performed in a prototype experimental reactor. Both the results obtained in the numerical simulations and in the experiments; show that the proposed observer may be used as a observer-based monitoring system