Application of Advanced Process Control techniques to a pusher type reheating furnace

In this paper an Advanced Process Control system aimed at controlling and optimizing a pusher type reheating furnace located in an Italian steel plant is proposed. A two-layer Model Predictive Control architecture has been adopted that, exploiting a chemical, physical and economic modelling of the process, overcomes the limitations of plant operators’ mental model and knowledge. In addition, an ad hoc decoupling strategy has been implemented, allowing the selection of the manipulated variables to be used for the control of each single process variable. A profitable trade-off between conflicting specifications, e.g. safety, quality and production constraints, energy saving and pollution impact, has been guaranteed. Simulation tests and real plant results demonstrated the soundness and the reliability of the proposed system.