Executive Summary : | In recent years, the demand of computing tools in development of novel processes/novel equipments in chemical/biochemical processes to make a safe, energy-efficient, and environment-friendly sustainable processes is increasing. Lignocellulosic (LCB) biomass the most abundant organic matter with composition of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, minor amounts of extractives and minerals that is relatively cheap and equivalent to fossil source for derivation of eco friendly bio-fuels, chemicals, fodder for live stock, biomaterials with net zero carbon emission. A pretreatment process which is energy intensive and expensive is needed to make it more susceptible for further value addition. Pretreatment of LCB using hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) is an emerging technology espcailly for higher scale and contrinous operations. One of the primary advantages of using HC is that the process becomes energy efficient and scalable process. To the knowledge of the researcher application of HC process for deligninfication has been scanty. The physical effects of cavitation process enhance turbulence, micro level mixing, accessibility, solubility and diffusion of the dissolved lignin. The optimal operation of these HC reactors present some of the of the most interesting and challenging problems due to the characteristics such as intrinsic nonlinearity, imperfect model, uncertainties in reaction dynamics, unknown disturbances, constraints on process variables and limited online measurement information. Efficient operation of these HC reactors demands the need to develop well posed control schemes to deal with the above characteristics and optimize the process conditions. These control schemes that ensure product property requirements calculated off-line and implemented on-line such that the system is operated in accordance with these control policies. In order to perform the on-line optimization strategy, the knowledge of current state variables and / or parameters in the process model is required. Since some of these variables are not available as direct measurements or some times measured with delay, it is essential to include an on-line estimator to estimate these process variables using available process measurements. Therefore, development of state and and parameter estimator becomes an integral part of on-line optimization. Lack of appropriate models for design, optimization, and scale-up of HC reactors is one of the primary reasons for this work and this proposal is therefore oriented towards the development of on-line optimizing control strategies for efficient and economical operation of HC reactors. |