COUPLING DYNAMIC DATA RECONCILIATION WITH MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL
FOR REAL-TIME OPTIMIZATION OF A FLOTATION PLANT SIMULATOR
A. Vasebi
Université Laval
Québec, Québec, Canada
*É. Poulin
Université Laval
Québec, Québec, Canada
(*Corresponding author: eric.poulin@gel.ulaval.ca)
D. Hodouin
Université Laval
Québec, Québec, Canada
A. Desbiens
Université Laval
Québec, Québec, Canada
ABSTRACT
Maximizing benefits generated by separation plants in the mineral processing industry is of prime
importance. To achieve this goal, observers and controllers are both key tools playing a crucial role for
economic optimization. Despite that these methods have been widely discussed in the literature and that
numerous applications have been reported, coupling the different algorithms raises practical challenges.
The definition of the economic function, the selection of the real-time optimization structure, the
elaboration of observer and controller models, the controller development, and the tuning of stochastic and
deterministic parameters strongly influence economic performances. The objective of the paper is to
discuss the major difficulties related to the implementation of a real-time optimization system and highlight
the benefits of linking data reconciliation and model predictive control for a simulated flotation plant. A
systematic top-down approach is used to go through the main design stages and comment the different
options available for the development of the optimization structure. An internal model predictive controller
coupled with a stationary observer is applied for the direct optimization of a three stages flotation plant
simulator based on a phenomenological model. The results show performance improvements in terms of
reduced collector consumption, increased recovery, and reduced grade variability. The discussion also
proposes alternative avenues that could be taken to achieve comparable improvements. Finally, since the
selected case-study is limited in order to provide a complete understanding of the benefits brought by a
data reconciliation observer, recommendations for industrial applications, which are most complex by far,
are provided to promote effective implementations.
KEYWORDS
Real-time optimization, model predictive control, data reconciliation, observer, flotation circuit