Optimized continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing via model-predictive control

This paper demonstrates the application of model-predictive control to a feeding blending unit used in continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing. The goal of this contribution is, on the one hand, to highlight the advantages of the proposed concept compared to conventional PI-controllers, and, on the other hand, to present a step-by-step guide for controller synthesis. The derivation of the required mathematical plant model is given in detail and all the steps required to develop a model-predictive controller are shown. Compared to conventional concepts, the proposed approach allows to conveniently consider constraints (e.g. mass hold-up in the blender) and offers a straightforward, easy to tune controller setup. The concept is implemented in a simulation environment. In order to realize it on a real system, additional aspects (e.g., state estimation, measurement equipment) will have to be investigated. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.