Optimal control of supercritical fluid extraction with a hybrid model

Supercritical fluid extraction is an environmental friendly separation technique in food and chemical industry. Optimal control is an essential issue in supercritical fluid extraction. The objective of this study is to improve the extraction processes to achieve the optimal performance in terms of a higher yield rate with a lower operating cost and a lower safety risk. In this paper, a hybrid control model combining the radial basis function network and the Peng-Robinson equation of state is used to model the supercritical fluid extraction process. An optimal control strategy is developed to select the process parameters. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is demonstrated by simulation studies.