Comparison of control techniques applied to a pilot pH treatment plant, focusing on Fuzzy Control

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Abstract

The industry, as a generator of contaminating waste, attaches great importance to the measurement
of pH in the treatment and elimination of contaminants from liquid waste, since there are processes
that bring side effects that are not always friendly to the environment, compromising the existence
of the human being and other species with which the planet is shared. The main objective of this
article was the implementation of a fuzzy logic controller in a pH treatment plant, based on
previous knowledge obtained from the operation, due to the complexity in the control of this
variable and the difficulty in obtaining precise mathematical models of this type in the chemical
process industry. It is intended to compare these results with those obtained in previous projects
after applying several adaptive controllers in the same plant. For this, the pH Treatment Pilot Plant
installed in the Industrial Processes Control Laboratory of the Polytechnic School of the University
of São Paulo will be used. And it will be shown that using multiple layers of control generates
better results; as well as the fact that the fuzzy logic controller obtained had a similar response to
the control scheme previously used in the plant, but with a shorter development time and with less
effort in its production.