Purity control of simulated moving bed based on advanced fuzzy controller

Simulated moving bed (SMB) technology is considered one of the most successful techniques in chromatographic separation. However, due to the nonlinearity caused by discrete events and sensitivity to numerous separation performance parameters, purity control in SMB systems has been a challenging issue. Fuzzy controllers are increasingly popular in industrial environments due to their simplicity and effectiveness in handling nonlinearity. However, traditional fuzzy controllers used in industry often overlook considerations of error acceleration, resulting in slight deviations from target values under steady-state conditions and oscillatory behavior when system parameters change. This study proposes an advanced fuzzy controller, where in a series of experiments, the purity control targets for component B are set at 94% and 96%, and for component A are set at 96% and 96%, respectively. Experimental results indicate that the advanced fuzzy controller achieves higher precision, with an average deviation of around 0.1%, for both components B and A. Importantly, under variations in adsorbent parameter(from 0.01 to 0.03), feed concentration(from 4.5 to 5.2), and switching time(from 178 to 182), the experimental results demonstrate smoother control with the advanced controller, particularly when oscillations occur with conventional fuzzy controllers due to switching time variations, indicating robust control with the advanced fuzzy controller.