Estimation of the mean crystal size and the moments of the crystal size distribution in batch crystallization processes

Abstract : A cascade high gain observer is designed to estimate the first four leading moments of the crystal size distribution (CSD) and the mean crystal size in batch crystallization processes. The proposed observer is based on a well-known transformation of the partial differential equation describing the CSD to a set of ordinary differential equations (the method of moments). Due to numerical difficulties resulting from the important differences in the magnitudes of the moments, a set of new variables is computed to allow a good estimation of the moments and thus the mean crystal size. In this work, only solute concentration and crystallizer temperature are used to estimate the different moments. The performance of the proposed observer is illustrated by simulation using a noisy measurement.