Neurofuzzy-Based Plant-Wide Hierarchical Coordinating Optimization and Control: An Application to Zinc Hydrometallurgy Plant

In this paper, a novel three-layer coordinating optimization and control strategy involving fuzzy neural networks (FNNs) is proposed for industrial plant-wide control. This strategy includes a coordinator (top layer), local optimizers (middle layer), and local controllers (bottom layer). The coordinator determines and coordinates set-points of production indices for each process in the plant, aiming to achieve plant-wide optimal control. The local optimizers optimize individual unit and deliver the information to the coordinator. The controllers calculate optimal control inputs for the processes according to the set-points. Model predictive control (MPC) is used in this layer. Also used are FNNs with a gradient-based learning algorithm, which are trained to represent the models of the processes that are controlled by MPC. By constructing a Lyapunov function, convergence of the FNNs is established. Experiments are carried out in the largest zinc hydrometallurgy plant in China. The results demonstrate performance of our strategy in tracking the set-points and saving processing costs. Moreover, the strategy achieves a more optimal overall plant operation when compared to the same FNN-based MPC scheme that does not use the coordinator.