Improving operation in an industrial MDF flash dryer through physics-based NMPC

Nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) has increased popularity thanks to the availability of black-box models, systematically obtained from plant data via machine-learning procedures. Although this may be a good approach in the medium term, pure data-driven models quickly become outdated with changes in the process operation, so re-identification (training) routines are periodically required. Moreover, if the NMPC includes any economic...