Hybrid fuzzy-disturbance observer for estimating disturbance in styrene polymerization process

Abstract In chemical process systems, disturbances such as heat loss, temperature and flow rate can affect the product yield and production costs. Therefore, observers are used to estimate the disturbance to obtain more stable and precise results. Observer is a computer software algorithm designed to estimate unknown parameters and can be used to replace sensors. This research aims to develop a hybrid observer by combining fuzzy logic and disturbance observer to overcome the limitation of the single observer known as fuzzy-disturbance observer. The hybrid observer will be applied in the styrene polymerization process to estimate the heat loss since it will affect the amount of heat in the reactor and reduced the product yield. The hybrid observer is also compare to a single disturbance observer and a fuzzy logic based observer to prove its effectiveness. The results show the effectiveness of this hybrid observer in estimating disturbance in styrene polymerization process. Further studies can be carried out to combine the hybrid observer with a controller to enhance the overall performances.