ISA Transactions 52 (2013) 438–449

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ISA Transactions
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Practice Article

Development of soft sensor for neural network based control of

distillation column
Asha Rani n, Vijander Singh, J.R.P. Gupta
Instrumentation and Control Engineering Division, Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, New Delhi, University of Delhi, Delhi

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The present work is aimed at the design of Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) and adaptive linear network
Received 10 July 2012 (ADALINE) based soft sensors and their application in inferential control of a multicomponent
Received in revised form distillation process. Further the ADALINE sensor is trained online using past measurements, to adapt
6 December 2012
the changes in the inputs and is termed as dynamic ADALINE (D-ADALINE) sensor. The soft sensors are
Accepted 21 December 2012
Available online 30 January 2013
then used in the control loop to obtain LM based inferential controller (LMIC), ADALINE based
This paper was recommended for inferential controller (ADIC) and D-ADALINE based inferential controller (DADIC) for the process. The
publication by Rickey Dubay performance of dynamic controller is also analyzed for different inputs and sampling intervals. The
comparison of results shows the efficient and robust prediction capability of D-ADALINE sensor and
Keywords: hence DADIC proves to be the best controller.
Distillation process
& 2012 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Inferential control
Neural network
Simulation
Soft sensor design

1. Introduction
The task of measuring and maintaining distillate quality
accurately in shortest possible time in the presence of distur-
bances is the main objective of this work. For successful control of
distillation process, the online measurement of product composi-
tion is quite important. The measurements made by composition
analyzers have unusual time delays due to which the control
action is delayed and quality of the product is affected. Further
the use of analyzers requires high capital cost, frequent calibra-
tions and regular maintenance. The composition analyzers there-
fore do not prove to be an effective solution for the accurate
online composition measurements. In an effort to overcome the
difficulties encountered in composition measurement, inferential
or soft sensing techniques have gained momentum recently as
viable alternatives to hardware sensors [1].
Neural network based soft sensors can easily and economically
adapt the input–output behavior of the process by minimizing the
mean square error between the network output and the target
output. Once the sensors are trained, they can predict the output
within a fraction of second. The soft sensors are dynamic models and
Abbreviations: ADALINE, Adaptive linear network; D-ADALINE, Dynamic ADA-
LINE; ADIC, ADALINE based inferential controller; DADIC, Dynamic ADALINE based
inferential controller; LMIC, LM based inferential controller; GMC, Generic model
controller; HANN, Hybrid artificial neural network; MSE, Mean square error
n criterion for selecting temperature control trays. The results show
Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 9953681254; fax: þ91 11 25099022.
E-mail addresses: ashansit@gmail.com (A. Rani),
vijaydee@gmail.com (V. Singh), jrpg83@yahoo.com (J.R.P. Gupta).
can be updated at any time whenever required [1,2]. Kano et al. [3]
designed inferential models using dynamic partial least square (PLS)
regression, on the basis of simulated time series data. The cascade
control system so developed is found much better than the usual
tray temperature control system. Partial least square regression has
been used in predicting as well as estimation of quality variables in
complex industrial processes [4,5]. Galicia et al.[6] proposed a
reduced order dynamic partial least square soft sensor which reduces
the model size, improves prediction and provides multiple step
ahead prediction. Xuefeng [7] integrated back propagation algorithm
with partial least square regression to design hybrid artificial neural
network (HANN) based soft sensor for measurement of product
concentration in p-xylene oxidation reaction. The HANN so devel-
oped overcomes the flaws of neural network and has the robust
character as well.
The literature reveals the tremendous use of various types of
neural networks for estimating the process variables. The esti-
mators so designed are efficiently used in the inferential control
of complex processes [8–11]. Vijaya Raghavan et al. [12] have
presented the design and implementation of a recurrent neural
network based inferential state estimation technique for an ideal
reactive distillation column. Prakash et al. [13] proposed an
artificial neural network based nonlinear control algorithm for
simulated batch reactive distillation column. The neuroestimator
based generic model controller (GMC) consists of an ANN based
state predictor and the GMC law. Luyben [14] evaluated the
that SVD analysis provides the simple and effective method to
select the location of temperature control tray.

0019-0578/$ - see front matter & 2012 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isatra.2012.12.009
 A. Rani et al. / ISA Transactions 52 (2013) 438–449 439

Lin et al. [15] presented a systematic approach for develop-
ment of quite effective soft sensors. The authors first defined a
template based on the key process variables. Second, a univariate
followed by a multivariate principle component analysis
approach is used. Subsequently, an inferential model is derived
using robust regression techniques. Pannocchia and Brambilla
[16] investigated the selection of auxiliary parameters on the
basis of steady state closed loop consistency and it is found that
data set characteristics do not affect the performance as com-
pared to the use of inconsistent auxiliary input parameters. Zhou
et al. [17] proposed a boot strap aggregated model approach to
the inferential estimation of kerosene dry point in refineries with
varying crudes. The proposed method significantly improved
overall inferential estimation performance. Kano et al. [18]
proposed predictive inferential control scheme integrated with
cascade control and is found to work considerably better than
other control schemes. Wu and Luo [19] introduced multirate
data fusion technology into soft sensor maintenance, to integrate
the soft sensor model estimation with process measurement. The
results demonstrated that the multirate Kalman filter approach
provides improved accuracy and reliability of soft estimation.
Kano and Nakagawa [20] surveyed the statistical process mon-
itoring and control methodologies and presented the application
results of data driven quality improvement to steel industry. Kano
et al. [21] proposed a two-stage subspace identification method
for the development of highly accurate soft sensors that can take
into account the effect of unmeasured disturbances. The proposed
method demonstrated its superiority over the conventional
methods. Ma et al. [22] developed an adaptive soft sensor based
on statistical identification of key variables. The inferential model
built by the selected key variables predicted accurately and
matched the real plant situation which makes it useful for
industrial applications. Jassar et al. [23] used the recurrent
neuro–fuzzy system in feedback loop to design a better control
scheme for heating system of building and hence saving of
energy. Aziz et al. [24] proposed a neural network inverse-
model-based control (NN-IMBC) strategy to track the optimal
reactor temperature profile and evaluated its performance
through a few robustness tests. The control strategy is found to
be robust and easier to implement.
In the present research work, ADALINE sensor and LM based
ANN sensor are designed to sense the product composition.
Further the ADALINE sensor is trained online using past measure-
ments to obtain dynamic ADALINE sensor. The developed sensors
are then applied for inferential control of multicomponent dis-
tillation process. The effect of selection of appropriate inputs and
sampling intervals on the controller performance is also analyzed.
The proposed dynamic inferential control scheme works more
efficiently than the conventional control schemes. The paper is
organized as follows. Section 2 describes the process and its
mathematical model. In Section 3 the neural network techniques
used for soft sensor development are discussed. Section 4 illus-
trates the design of inferential control schemes for distillation
process along with the robustness analysis of the controllers.
Section 5 discusses the limitations of the work and finally
concluding remarks are provided in the last section.
the bottom to provide necessary vaporization for the process. The
liquid removed from the reboiler is known as the bottom product
or simply, bottoms. The vapor moves up the column, and when it
exits from the top of the unit, it is cooled by a condenser and
stored in the reflux drum. Part of the condensed liquid is recycled
back to the top of the column and this is called the reflux. The
condensed liquid removed from the reflux drum is known as
distillate or top product. A liquid mixture that is to be processed,
called as feed is introduced to a tray known as feed tray and is
stored in the reboiler. The feed tray divides the column into a top
(enriching or rectifying) section and a bottom (stripping) section.
The distillation process under consideration [25] has 15 trays;
tray 5 is the feed tray and separates five components mixture into
its component fractions. The mathematical model of the distilla-
tion process with usual assumptions is as follows:
The component material balance for tray i is given by
 
d Mi xij
¼ Li þ 1 xi þ 1,j Li xij V i yij þV i1 yi1,j þF i xFij ð1Þ
dt
for j ¼1,y,NC; i¼ 1,y,NT
where
NT ¼Number of trays
NC¼Number of components
Mi ¼Molar liquid holdup on tray i, lb-mole
xij ¼Liquid fraction of component j leaving the tray i, %mole
fraction
Li ¼ Total liquid flow rate leaving tray i, lb-mole/h
Vi ¼Total vapor flow rate leaving tray i, lb-mole/h
Fi ¼Total feed flow rate injected to tray i, lb-mole/h
xFij ¼Liquid fraction of component j in feed on tray i, %mole
fraction
The vapor composition of component j on tray i is obtained as
 
yij ¼ Zij ynij yi1,j þ yi1,j ð2Þ
where
Zij ¼Murphree stage efficiency based on vapor phase of
component j on tray i
ynij ¼Equilibrium vapor fraction of component j on tray i
The total material balance for general tray i is calculated as
dMi
¼ Li þ 1 Li V i þ V i1 þ F i ð3Þ
dt
The enthalpy balance for general tray i is given by the
following equation.
Li þ 1 hi þ 1 Li hi V i Hi þ V i1 Hi1 þ F i hFi ¼ 0 ð4Þ
where
hi ¼Total molar enthalpy of liquid leaving tray i, kJ/lb-mole
Hi ¼ Total molar enthalpy of vapor leaving tray i, kJ/lb-mole

Enthalpies of liquid and vapor on tray i are calculated by

2. Process description mixing rule and are given by
X
NC
Distillation is a process of separating feed streams and purify- hi ¼ hlij xij ð5Þ
ing final and intermediate product streams by application and j¼1
removal of heat. In case of continuous distillation process, the
separation of liquid components is carried out in a vertical shell. X
NC
The vertical shell houses the column internals such as trays/plates Hi ¼ Hvij yij ð6Þ
and/or pickings to enhance the separation. There is a reboiler in j¼1
440 A. Rani et al. / ISA Transactions 52 (2013) 438–449

where hlij and Hvij represent pure component enthalpies of g k ¼ rFðxÞ9x ¼ x ¼Gradient vector evaluated corresponding to
k
component j on tray i in liquid and vapor phase, respectively. xk
The mathematical model discussed above is simulated in
MATLAB 7.0.1 on intels CoreTM, i7 CPU, M640, 2.80 GHz, 2 GB Assuming that F(x) is a sum of squares function then
RAM, 32 bit operating system and considered for control and X
N
analysis purpose. The simulation data thus obtained is used by FðxÞ ¼ v2i ðxÞ ¼ vT ðxÞvðxÞ ð9Þ
soft sensors to model the input–output behavior of the system. i¼1

where vi(x) is error function, and v(x) error vector

3. Soft sensors
The online accurate measurement of the composition in
distillation process is obtained with the help of inferential
measurements. As the product composition is a function of
temperature, the temperature measurements at different places
of the column may be used to infer the product quality. The soft
sensors are designed to model the relationship between second-
ary measurements and product composition. The secondary
measurements considered as inputs to the sensors are 15 tray
temperatures, reboiler temperature and reflux drum temperature
(temperature profile) along with the reboiler pressure, heat input
and reflux flow rate (NT þ5). The distillate quality can be repre-
sented as the liquid and vapor compositions (2  NC) of five
components in the distillate. Thus a total of 20 inputs and 10
outputs are considered for training and testing the soft sensors.
The data used for training and testing the soft sensors is acquired
by simulating the mathematical model of multicomponent dis-
tillation process for variable heat input, reflux flow rate and
reboiler pressure. The heat input, reflux flow rate and reboiler
pressure are varied randomly in a specified range and the
corresponding 20 input and 10 target output patterns are gener-
ated. The relationship between the product compositions and
secondary measurements is given as follows:
   
xD ,yD ¼ f pB ,Q ,R,T B , T,T D ð7Þ
where
xD ¼Liquid fraction of product component in distillate, %mole
fraction
yD ¼Vapor fraction of product component in distillate, %mole
fraction
pB ¼Reboiler pressure,
Q¼Heat input, kW
R¼Reflux flow rate, lb-mole/h
TB ¼Reboiler temperature, 1F
T¼ Temperature profile of distillation column, 1F
TD ¼Reflux drum temperature, 1F
Three types of neural network based soft sensors designed for
the purpose are discussed below.
3.1. Levenberg–Marquardt based soft sensor
The gradient vector can be written as
rFðxÞ ¼ 2J T ðxÞvðxÞ ð10Þ
The Hessian matrix can be approximated as
2
r FðxÞ ffi2J T ðxÞJðxÞ ð11Þ
where J(x)¼ Jacobian matrix
From Eqs. (9)–(11) the subsequent value of xk is obtained as
xk þ 1 ¼ xk ½J T ðxk ÞJ ðxk Þ1 J T ðxk Þvðxk Þ ð12Þ
Eq. (12) is termed as Gauss Newton method. After modifying
the approximate Hessian matrix, the upgraded Hessian matrix, G
is evaluated as:
G ¼ H þ mI ð13Þ
where
H ¼Approximate Hessian matrix
m ¼Eigenvalue of approximate Hessian matrix (momentum
parameter)
I ¼Unity matrix
Eqs. (12) and (13) lead to the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm
xk þ 1 ¼ xk ½J T ðxk ÞJ ðxk Þ þ mk I1 J T ðxk Þvðxk Þ ð14Þ
The above algorithm is used to train the LM neural network to
estimate the product composition. The network structure for soft
sensor is selected after rigorous experimentation and is given as
(20–15–15–10), i.e., 20 inputs in input layer, two hidden layers of
15 neurons each and 10 neurons in the output layer.
3.2. Adaptive linear network based soft sensor
Adaptive linear neuron (ADALINE) introduced by Widrow and
Hoff [27], is used to infer the distillate composition from the
temperature measurements. The ADALINE network is almost
similar to the perceptron, except that its transfer function is
linear, instead of hard limiting. The weights of the network are
trained with the help of least mean square (LMS) algorithm. The
LMS algorithm is more powerful than the perceptron learning rule
and can prove to be a better sensor. The basic structure of
ADALINE network is shown in Fig. 1.
Layer of linear
neurons
input

The LM based artificial neural network [26] is used as the

composition sensor. The weights of the neural network are a
updated according to the LM algorithm while minimizing the p
mean square error between target and network output. w
Rx1 n Sx1
The performance index to be optimized is F(x), thus from the SxR +
Newton’s method we get Sx1
1
xk þ 1 ¼ xk A1
k gk ð8Þ b

where Sx1
R S
xk ¼ Solution vector at step k
Ak ¼ r2 FðxÞ9x ¼ x ¼Hessian matrix evaluated at xk Fig. 1. ADALINE Network.
k

The output of the network is given by
a ¼ purelinðWp þ bÞ ¼ Wp þb
The ith element of the network output vector can be written
 
ai ¼ purelinðni Þ ¼ purelin wTi p þ bi ¼ wTi p þbi ð16Þ
where wi is made up of the elements of the ith row of W:
2 3
wi,1
6w 7
6 i,2 7
wi ¼ 6
6 ^ 7:
7 ð17Þ
4 5
wi,R
The soft sensor is used to sense the product composition of the
process, i.e., liquid and vapor composition of five components in
the distillate. Therefore ADALINE soft sensor has 10 parallel units
with 20 inputs to each and 1 output from each unit. Hence the
network has 20 inputs and 10 outputs.
3.3. Dynamic ADALINE network based soft sensor
The neural networks model the behavior of the process with
the help of supervised learning. The output obtained from these
networks is accurate as long as the inputs lie within the range of
training data. In the event of disturbances or large changes in set
point, the input parameters may deviate from the one used in
training the soft sensor. The problem may be overcome by
introducing the immediate previous information to retrain the
neural network. The ADALINE network is a single layer network
and the training time taken will be lesser than the multi layer LM
based network. Therefore in order to adapt the changes in inputs
the ADALINE network is retrained online with the previous values
and is termed as Dynamic ADALINE (D-ADALINE) network. The D-
ADALINE so designed is used as the soft sensor for composition
measurement of distillation process.
3.4. Validation of soft sensors
A laboratory set up of distillation process is used to validate
the soft sensors. The distillation column has 9 trays, two feed
tanks of 40 l each and tray 5 from bottom is used as the feed tray.
The reboiler has 25 l capacity with three electric heaters with
total capacity of 8 kW, out of which one is of 4 kW and two are of
2 kW each. Two pressure transmitters are used to sense the
pressure on top and first tray of the column. Twelve temperature
sensors are used to sense the temperature of liquid on each tray,
1 0.18
methanol composition (mole fraction)
0.95
0.9
0.85
0.8
0 2
Fig. 2. Estimated distillate composition of binary distillation process. (a) Methanol composition and (b) Water composition.
A. Rani et al. / ISA Transactions 52 (2013) 438–449 441
condenser inlet and outlet and on reflux pipe. Two rotameters are
connected for feed flow measurement to the feed tray and water
ð15Þ
flow measurement to the condenser. The composition of samples
collected is calculated by using refractive index of liquid by a
refractometer. The reflux divider is connected at the outlet pipe of
condenser. The liquid from condenser flows through reflux
divider, which controls the reflux ratio, hence the reflux flow.
Experimental results of temperature profile for different heat
inputs are used to test the soft sensors. The data consists of 10
inputs, i.e., 9 tray temperatures and reflux drum temperature and
2 outputs, i.e., composition of methanol and water in distillate.
A part of the data obtained is used to train the soft sensors and the
remaining data is used for testing purpose. Fig. 2 shows that the
estimated compositions obtained from ADALINE and LM soft
sensors are coinciding with the experimental compositions. The
MSE of estimation for ADALINE soft sensor and LM soft sensor are
9.7131e 08 and 2.2133e 09, respectively. It is found that the
MSE obtained for the two sensors is comparable. Further the LM
soft sensor is a multilayered network whereas the ADALINE soft
sensor is a single layer network. Therefore the LM soft sensor
takes more training time as compared to ADALINE soft sensor.
Hence it is observed from the results that although the ADALINE
soft sensor is a single layer network, its estimation is as good as
LM soft sensor. The process under consideration is simple because
it separates a binary mixture and number of trays in the column is
less. Thus the temperature profile is sufficient to infer the
distillate composition. The other parameters, i.e., heat input,
reboiler pressure, and reflux flow along with the temperature
profile of distillation process are not used for estimation of
product compositions. The soft sensors are also developed and
tested for estimation as well as inferential control of multi-
component distillation process as discussed below.
4. Inferential control of multicomponent distillation process
The control of distillate composition is a difficult task because
of the time delay incurred in composition measurement. The
objective can be achieved efficiently by inferring the product
composition from secondary measurements instead of direct
composition measurement. The soft sensors used in the inferen-
tial control, estimate distillate composition from the temperature
profile of the process and later on the heat input and reflux flow
rate are included as inputs to the soft sensors. The major liquid
composition XD2 is controlled to regulate the product quality,
which is achieved by manipulating the reboiler heat input.
experimental
LM estimated
water composition (mole fraction)
ADALINE estimated
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.1
0.08
0.06
0.04
experimental 0.02
LM estimated
0
ADALINE estimated
-0.02
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
sample sample
442 A. Rani et al. / ISA Transactions 52 (2013) 438–449
The actual value of XD2 required for control purpose is inferred
from the temperature measurements with the help of soft sensors.
A conventional PID controller is first designed for comparison
purposes as discussed below.
4.1. PID control
A control system design problem is to obtain a nonlinear
vector value function h() given as [27],
uðtÞ ¼ h½t,xðtÞ,rðtÞ ð18Þ
where uðtÞ is the control input to the process, x(t) is the system
state vector and rðtÞ is the reference input. The feedback control
law h is selected in such a way that the closed loop system is
stable and meets the performance indices. In case of single input
single output system, the function h takes the following form for a
proportional plus derivative plus integral or PID controller.
Z then manipulates the reboiler heat input to the process in order to
de
ea ðt Þ ¼ kp  eðt Þ þ ki eðt Þdt þ kd  ð19Þ
dt
The possible combinations of the three controller terms can be
used depending upon the nature of the system. Thus the control
system design problem in case of PID controller is reduced to
obtain coefficients kp , ki , and kd . The conventional PID control-
lers can be tuned with the help of various methods. In the present
control problem the PID controller is tuned with the help of
Tyreus–Luyben tuning method and the tuning parameters are
given as Kp ¼2250.9, Ti ¼35.2 and Td ¼2.5397.
4.2. Static inferential control
As the time constant of the process is large, the effect of reboiler
heat input variations in the composition is observed after long time.
This causes delay to achieve the desired product quality which can
be avoided with the help of inferential controllers. The inferential
control scheme considered in the present work utilizes temperature
profile to estimate the product composition. Hence the composition
R
TD
Ns+1+Nr
Nr trays
Tn
F,
zF
1 XD2set
Ns trays
TB
QR+dQR
B, XBj
Fig. 3. Inferential control of distillation process.
is anticipated and required manipulation is done before the actual
quality of the product gets affected. Thus the proposed control
scheme may prove to be an efficient and fast scheme. The previously
developed LM and ADALINE soft sensors are utilized for composition
control of multicomponent distillation process and is shown in Fig. 3.
The inferential controller comprises of soft sensor, error detector and
a PID controller. The soft sensors used in the control scheme
are first trained with the help of time series data obtained
from simulation of distillation process. The sensors then use the
temperature profile as inputs and predict the product composition
online. The inferred product composition facilitates the quick and
economic measurements of the composition and is used in the
control loop as feedback signal. In this case the major composition
is of component 2 and is used as the reference input in the control
loop. The error detector compares the measured and reference
composition and the error signal obtained is given to the PID
controller. The manipulating signal obtained from the PID controller
minimize the difference between the reference and measured
composition. Three inferential controllers based on artificial neural
networks are designed, i.e., LM based inferential controller (LMIC),
ADALINE based inferential controller (ADIC) and D-ADALINE based
inferential controller (DADIC).
The Tyreus–Luyben tuned PID controller is used in the infer-
ential control of product quality. The PID tuning parameters for
the two inferential controllers, i.e., LMIC and ADIC are given in
Table 1. The PID parameters of the two control schemes are
different because estimation uses different algorithms to model
the relationship between input and output. Also the MSE of
estimation of the two soft sensors is quite different as observed
in Table 2. This means the transfer function built by these sensors
is also different. The transfer function of the soft sensor gets
cascaded with the process transfer function as shown in Fig. 3.
Therefore for different control schemes the overall process trans-
fer function is changed which leads to different PID parameters.
The estimation made by the two soft sensors under inferential
control is shown in Fig. 4. Here out of five components in distillate
P
D, XDj
Inferential controller
XD2m
Soft
Sensor - +
PID
 A. Rani et al. / ISA Transactions 52 (2013) 438–449 443

the two components with highest concentration (XD1 and XD2) evident from Fig. 5. On comparing the results of ADIC and LMIC, it
are shown. The composition of other three components also is found that ADIC proves to be a better controller.
shows similar variations. The set point for inferential control of The PID control scheme uses the actual composition from the
distillate quality is taken as 0.98203 mol fraction of XD2 compo- simulated distillation process, which is an ideal condition. The
nent. It is observed from the results that the ADALINE soft sensor condition is ideal because soft sensor is omitted from the loop and
provides more accurate composition measurement as compared actual composition is being used. This is similar to the case where
to the LM soft sensor. The accuracy in composition measurement the soft sensor has 100% efficiency which is not feasible practi-
leads to an efficient inferential control of product quality, which is cally. The control achieved with the inferential control scheme is
in good agreement with the ideal case (Fig. 5). Therefore infer-
ential control provides an efficient and feasible solution to the
Table 1
PID tuning parameters for inferential control. online composition control of distillation process.

Controller Kp Ti Td
4.3. Dynamic inferential control
ADIC 118.18 165 11.9048
LMIC 6.8182 44 3.1746 The static inferential controllers use neural network based soft
sensors. As discussed earlier in Section 3.3, the neural networks
model the input output relationship on the basis of training data
Table 2 provided. In case of transients, disturbance or changes in process
Estimation error of soft sensors. variables, the inputs to the sensor may deviate from the limits of
Case Mean square error (MSE)
training data. In such cases the soft sensors need to be retrained using
past measurements to add the latest dynamic information. Further
LM ADALINE D-ADALINE the ADALINE network takes extremely less time to train as compared
to multilayer LM network. This property of ADALINE is used in online
Composition control 1.3320e  010 1.1176e  011 3.3585e  012
training of the network to obtain a Dynamic ADALINE (D-ADALINE)
Set point tracking – 5.4720e  011 2.3322e  011
Disturbance rejection – 3.1521e  009 7.3092e  012 soft sensor. The added information of system dynamics enables the
soft sensor to adapt any changes in the input variables of the process.

0.9821
LMIC
0.0175
0.9821 LM estimated
component XD2 (mole fraction)
component XD1 (mole fraction)

ADIC
0.0174 ADALINE estimated
0.982

0.0174 0.982

0.982
0.0174
0.982
0.0174
LMIC 0.982
LM estimated
0.0174 ADIC
0.982
ADALINE estimated

0.982
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
no. of iterations no. of iterations

Fig. 4. Estimated distillate composition using LM and ADALINE soft sensors. (a) Estimated Composition XD1 and (b) Estimated Composition XD2.

0.0175
PID
0.9821
component XD1 (mole fraction)

PID LMIC
0.0175
component XD2 (mole fraction)

LMIC ADIC
ADIC set point
0.9821
0.0174

0.0174 0.982

0.0174 0.982

0.0174
0.982

0.0174
0.982

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
no. of iterations no. of iterations

Fig. 5. Distillate composition control using LMIC and ADIC. (a) Composition of component XD1 and (b) Composition of component XD2.
444 A. Rani et al. / ISA Transactions 52 (2013) 438–449

0.0175 0.9821
DADIC DADIC

0.0175 D-ADALINE estimated D-ADALINE estimated

0.982

component XD2 (mole fraction)

component XD1 (mole fraction)

0.0175
0.982
0.0174
0.982
0.0174
0.982
0.0174
0.982
0.0174

0.0174 0.982

0.0173 0.982
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
no. of iterations no. of iterations

Fig. 6. Estimated distillate composition using D-ADALINE soft sensor. (a) Estimated Composition XD1 and (b) Estimated Composition XD2.

0.0175
0.982
0.0175 component XD2 (mole fraction)
component XD1 (mole fraction)

0.982
0.982
0.0174
0.982
0.0174 0.982
0.982
0.0174 0.982
0.982
0.0174
0.982
ADIC

0.0174
ADIC 0.982 DADIC
DADIC
PID
PID 0.982
set point
0.0173
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
no. of iterations no. of iterations

Fig. 7. Distillate composition control using DADIC and ADIC. (a) Composition of component XD1 and (b) Composition of component XD2.

The dynamic soft sensor leads to a new inferential controller termed
as dynamic ADIC (DADIC).
The PID tuning parameters for DADIC are given as
K p ¼ 1653:8, T i ¼ 33 and Td ¼ 2.381. The D-ADALINE soft sensor
provides a very good prediction of product composition which is
obvious from the results obtained (Fig. 6). The D-ADALINE
estimated composition overlaps the actual composition and the
MSE obtained is of the order of e 12. Fig. 7 compares the control
performance of DADIC with ADIC and PID. As the estimation error
of D-ADALINE sensor is extremely small, the control achieved is
also efficient. It is observed from the results that the DADIC
improves the transient as well as steady state performance as
compared to ADIC. It is also found that the estimation made by D-
ADALINE soft sensor is slightly lower than the actual composition,
this results in a large error to the inferential controller as
compared to the PID control scheme (ideal condition). The
inferential controller reduces this large error by providing a
smaller manipulated variable to the process, which in turn
increases composition XD2 in comparison to the PID control.
The sampling interval in the above case is taken to be of one-
iteration and all previous values are considered.
4.4. Disturbance rejection and set point tracking
As discussed earlier DADIC adapts itself to the changes in input
variables of the process, therefore DADIC is tested for disturbance
rejection and set point tracking. The performance of ADIC is also
tested for these conditions. The 75% disturbance in feed flow rate for
20 iterations is introduced at steady state (100th iteration). The
estimations obtained from the D-ADALINE and ADALINE soft sensor
for the negative and positive disturbances are shown in Figs. 8 and 10,
respectively. It is found that D-ADALINE senses the variations quite
efficiently as compared to the ADALINE soft sensor in presence of
disturbance. This is because the information of disturbance is
provided to the sensor in the form of previous measurements and
it gets adapted to the new change. Thus the composition control
attained with the help DADIC is better than ADIC (Figs. 9 and 11).
The set point of component XD2 is changed from (i) 0.98203 to
0.98210 and (ii) 0.98203 to 0.98196 at 200th iteration separately. The
estimation and control obtained for positive and negative changes in
set point using ADALINE and D-ADALINE are shown in Fig. 12–15. The
DADIC adapts to the changes in set point because of the inclusion of
previous measurements in the training data of the soft sensor. It is
also observed from the results that the ADIC is not able to follow the
dynamics of the process, whereas DADIC being adaptive in nature
proves to be a better and robust controller.
The mean square error (MSE) of estimation of the sensors under
different conditions is summarized in Table 2. It is concluded that D-
ADALINE sensor predicts efficiently in all conditions as compared to
the other designed sensors. The performance indices of designed
controllers are given in Table 3. The analysis of performance indices
proves that DADIC is an efficient and robust controller.
 A. Rani et al. / ISA Transactions 52 (2013) 438–449 445

0.0175 0.9821
ADIC ADIC

0.0175 ADALINE estimated ADALINE estimated

component XD1 (mole fraction) 0.9821

component XD2 (mole fraction)

DADIC DADIC
D-ADALINE estimated D-ADALINE estimated
0.0174
0.9821
0.0174
0.9821
0.0174
0.982
0.0174
0.982
0.0174

0.0173 0.982

0.0173 0.982
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
no. of iterations no. of iterations

Fig. 8. Estimated distillate compositions for  5% disturbance. (a) Estimated Composition XD1 and (b) Estimated Composition XD2.

0.0174 0.9821
ADIC
DADIC
0.0174 0.9821
component XD1 (mole fraction)

component XD2 (mole fraction)

PID
set point
0.0174 0.9821

0.0174 0.9821

0.0174 0.982

0.0173 0.982

ADIC
0.0173 DADIC
0.982
PID
0.0173 0.982
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
no. of iterations no. of iterations

Fig. 9. Disturbance rejection using ADIC and DADIC (  5%). (a) Composition of component XD1 and (b) Composition of component XD2.

0.0177 0.9821
ADIC
ADALINE estimated 0.982
0.0176
component XD1 (mole fraction)

component XD2 (mole fraction)

DADIC
D-ADALINE estimated
0.982
0.0176 0.982
0.982
0.0175
0.982
0.0175
0.9819

0.0174 0.9819
ADIC
0.9819
ADALINE estimated
0.0174
0.9819 DADIC
D-ADALINE estimated
0.0173 0.9819
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
no. of iterations no. of iterations

Fig. 10. Estimated distillate compositions for þ5% disturbance. (a) Estimated Composition XD1 and (b) Estimated Composition XD2.

4.5. Selection of appropriate inputs [3] reveals that tray temperatures are correlated and therefore
mutually independent few measurements must be selected to avoid
In the previous simulations, the complete temperature profile over fitting. Therefore a systematic way for selecting the appropriate
is used to estimate and control the distillate quality. The literature tray temperatures is presented. A rigorous experimentation is
446 A. Rani et al. / ISA Transactions 52 (2013) 438–449

0.0177 0.9821
ADIC
DADIC 0.982
0.0176
component XD1 (mole fraction)

component XD2 (mole fraction)

PID
0.982
0.0176 0.982
0.982
0.0175
0.982
0.0175
0.9819

0.0174 0.9819
ADIC
0.9819
DADIC
0.0174
0.9819 PID
set point
0.0173 0.9819
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
no. of iterations no. of iterations

Fig. 11. Disturbance rejection using ADIC and DADIC ( þ5%). (a) Composition of component XD1 and (b) Composition of component XD2.

0.0175
ADIC 0.9822
ADALINE estimated
DADIC 0.9822
component XD1 (mole fraction)

component XD2 (mole fraction)

0.0174 D-ADALINE estimated
0.9821
0.9821
0.0174
0.9821
0.9821
0.0173 0.9821
0.982
ADIC
0.0173 0.982 ADALINE estimated
DADIC
0.982
D-ADALINE estimated
0.0172 0.982
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
no. of iterations no. of iterations

Fig. 12. Estimated distillate compositions for positive change in set point. (a) Estimated Composition XD1 and (b) Estimated Composition XD2.

0.0174 0.9822
ADIC
0.0174 DADIC 0.9822
PID
component XD1 (mole fraction)

component XD2 (mole fraction)

0.0174 0.9821

0.9821
0.0174
0.9821
0.0174
0.9821
0.0173
0.9821
0.0173
0.982
0.0173 0.982 ADIC
DADIC
0.0173 0.982 PID
set point
0.0173 0.982
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
no. of iterations no. of iterations

Fig. 13. Set point tracking using ADIC and DADIC (positive change). (a) Composition of component XD1 and (b) Composition of component XD2.

carried out to remove the redundant tray temperatures from the 2. Decrement n by one, i.e., n ¼n  1.
measurements as explained below: 3. Remove all the tray temperatures one at a time from input to
soft sensor. Evaluate the MSE of estimation in each case and
1. Initialize n ¼NT, the no. of trays in the column. save it as a vector M.
 A. Rani et al. / ISA Transactions 52 (2013) 438–449 447

0.0176 0.9821
ADIC ADIC
ADALINE estimated 0.982 ADALINE estimated
0.0176

component XD2 (mole fraction)

component XD1 (mole fraction) DADIC DADIC
D-ADALINE estimated 0.982 D-ADALINE estimated

0.0176 0.982

0.982
0.0175
0.982

0.0174 0.9819

0.9819
0.0174
0.9819

0.0173 0.9819
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
no. of iterations no. of iterations

Fig. 14. Estimated distillate compositions for negative change in set point. (a) Estimated Composition XD1 and (b) Estimated Composition XD2.

0.0176 0.9821
ADIC ADIC
DADIC 0.982 DADIC
0.0176 PID PID
component XD2 (mole fraction)
component XD1 (mole fraction)

0.982 set point

0.0176 0.982

0.982
0.0175
0.982

0.0174 0.9819

0.9819
0.0174
0.9819

0.0173 0.9819
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
no. of iterations no. of iterations

Fig. 15. Set point tracking using ADIC and DADIC (negative change). (a) Composition of component XD1 and (b) Composition of component XD2.

Table 3 Table 4
Performance indices of inferential controllers. MSE for different set of tray temperatures used in estimation.

Controller Overshoot Settling time (iterations) Steady state error Case No. of Trays removed LM ADALINE D-ADALINE
trays
PID 5.2120e  6 60 2.5363e  6
LMIC 1.0030e  5 – – T17 17 – 6.2801e  11 9.0145e  12 4.0055e  12
ADIC 1.7008e  5 160 4.4381e  8 T16 16 10 9.5047e  11 5.4907e  12 3.2087e  12
DADIC 1.5093e  5 120 1.2132e  11 T15 15 10,12 1.1084e  10 4.9247e  12 3.0009e  12
T14 14 10,12,5 1.0561e  11 4.1828e  12 2.8161e  12
T13 13 10,12,5,4 6.7410e  11 3.6062e  12 2.6087e  12
T12 12 10,12,5,4,2 3.9326e  11 3.2509e  12 2.4161e  12
4. Evaluate the minimum {M(i) i¼1,y,n} and permanently T11 11 10,12,5,4,2,6 8.1200e  10 3.1309e  12 2.3998e  12
remove the corresponding tray temperature. Also save the T10 10 10,12y2,6,8 6.6341e  11 3.0193e  12 2.2831e  12
minimum MSE obtained in a vector P. T9 9 10,12y6,8,16 1.5678e  11 2.6719e  12 2.2312e  12
5. If n 42 go to step 2. T8 8 10,12y8,16,13 2.0915e  11 2.3011e  12 2.1646e  12
T7 7 10,12y16,13,3 6.7015e  11 1.9259e  12 2.0315e  12
6. The minimum MSE is obtained from vector P by evaluating
T6 6 10,12y13,3,15 4.7455e  11 2.5299e  12 3.5482e  12
minimum {P(i) i¼1,y,n} which provides the optimum no. of T5 5 10,12y3,15,11 2.3994e  10 8.1555e  12 4.3564e  12
tray temperatures to estimate the composition. T4 4 10,12y15,11,14 1.9774e  10 9.6068e  11 2.6822e  11
T3 3 10,12y11,14,7 5.0010e  10 8.5942e  11 2.1921e  10
The procedure described above is applied to all the designed T2 2 10,12y14,7,1 1.1203e  9 3.7190e  10 1.8670e  10

soft sensors and the results obtained are shown in Table 4. It is

observed from Table 4 that a set of seven tray temperatures (T7)
provides the minimum error for all the soft sensors. For further
analysis only two cases, i.e., T17 (all trays) and T7 (seven trays) reflux flow rate and reboiler pressure. In the present model,
are used. pressure of the column is constant and therefore is not included
The performance of the dynamic soft sensor can be further in the input set. Thus heat input Q and reflux flow rate R along
improved by including the other input variables, i.e., heat input, with the temperature profile are used as inputs to the soft sensor.
448 A. Rani et al. / ISA Transactions 52 (2013) 438–449

The following possible combinations of inputs to the soft sensor In Table 5(b) for cases I2 (T, R) and I3 (T, Q) the MSE gets
are tried. reduced in comparison to I1. But the introduction of both R and Q
simultaneously as inputs to the soft sensor causes over fitting and
I1: Tray temperature (T) thus MSE is increased. The over fitting shows that there is a strong
I2: T and reflux flow rate (R) correlation between the reflux flow rate and heat input. This
I3: T and reboiler heat input (Q) effect is observed because all the tray temperatures are mutually
I4: T, R and Q independent and inclusion of any correlated variable in the input
may increase the MSE.
For the above cases the effect of sampling intervals on The overall analysis shows that the T7 uses optimum tray
distillate quality as well as dynamic performance of system is temperatures. Further adding the heat input Q as input, the error
analyzed and is given in forthcoming sub section. is further minimized. It is also found that previous 5–6 values are
sufficient for introduction of dynamics in the soft sensor as the
4.6. Selection of sampling intervals error does not show significant reduction on further increase in
no. of previous values. Also the immediate previous values
All past measurements are considered in D-ADALINE soft contribute more to the reduction of MSE. In order to design an
sensor used previously (Section 3.3). However for continuous efficient inferential control for such systems a step by step
systems the training data may become very large after certain procedure must be followed. First the mutual independent tray
time. Also the previous measurements of ancient instants may be temperatures must be selected on the basis of algorithm
irrelevant for the present training. Therefore the previous mea- described above. Second the introduction of appropriate non
surements may be sampled to minimize the training data. The correlated inputs must be considered as inputs to the soft sensor.
performance of the soft sensor is thus investigated for various Lastly performance of the soft sensor should be analyzed for
sampling intervals. Two types of sampling intervals are consid- various sampling intervals to obtain the optimum sampling
ered here. In the first type only 2, 4 and 6 previous values are interval.
taken whereas the second type considers 40 previous values with
a sampling interval of 2, 4 and 6. The cases are given as follows:
5. Limitations
Case Values No. of past
measurements The mathematical model considered is simplified using certain
assumptions. The energy dynamics is assumed to be so rapid that
S1 2 previous values 2 the enthalpy balance reduces to an algebraic equation. The
S2 4 previous values 4 simplified model is thus slightly deviated from the actual process.
S3 6 previous values 6 A rigorous model may be considered to overcome this limitation.
S4 6, 12, 18 till 42 previous 7 The model under consideration is a hypothetical model; the
values validation of the designed soft sensors is therefore done using
S5 4, 8, 12 till 40 previous values 10 the experimental data of a binary distillation process. In case of
S6 2, 4, 6 till 40 previous values 20 inferential control system the PID controller needs to be retuned
while switching over from one soft sensor to the other.

Table 5 shows the significance of sampling interval in estimat-

ing the distillate quality. It is observed from Table 5(a) (S1-S3 and
S4-S6) that as the no. of past measurements is increased, the MSE
of prediction gets reduced. This is because more information is
provided to the soft sensor thus leading to a more accurate model.
Further it is also found that few immediate previous measure-
ments can predict more accurately as compared to larger no. of
sampled past measurements. Second as the other two input
variables (Q and R) are added as inputs to the soft sensor, the
accuracy is increased. It is seen that reflux flow rate plays more
important role in measurement as its introduction as the input
reduces the MSE significantly as compared to heat input. When
both are used as inputs the MSE is minimized.
6. Conclusion
In the present paper, adaptive linear network and LM based
ANN are used to design soft sensors for estimating the product
composition from temperature profile of the distillation process.
It is concluded from the results that the ADALINE soft sensor is
more efficient than LM soft sensor in terms of accuracy, training
time and memory space required for training. The soft sensors so
developed are used to design two inferential controllers namely
LMIC and ADIC, to control the distillate composition of multi-
component distillation process. The control performance of
ADIC is found superior to LMIC. The performance of ADALINE

Table 5
Effect of measurement selection and sampling interval on estimation of distillate quality.

Case S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6

(a) T17 case

I1 4.1294e  12 4.0744e  12 4.0641e  12 4.1544e  12 4.1266e  12 4.0932e  12
I2 3.8334e  12 3.7893e  12 3.7805e  12 3.8656e  12 3.8424e  12 3.7981e  12
I3 3.9463e  12 3.8990e  12 3.8908e  12 3.9735e  12 3.9530e  12 3.9090e  12
I4 3.8089e  12 3.7604e  12 3.7528e  12 3.8449e  12 3.8104e  12 3.7692e  12

(b) T7 case
I1 2.1509e  12 2.0847e  12 2.0516e  12 2.1862e  12 2.1595e  12 2.0999e  12
I2 2.0977e  12 1.9531e  12 1.9170e  12 2.1368e  12 2.0872e  12 1.9780e  12
I3 2.0351e  12 1.9058e  12 1.8726e  12 2.0720e  12 2.0228e  12 1.9260e  12
I4 2.5264e  12 2.3391e  12 2.2882e  12 2.5269e  12 2.4541e  12 2.3297e  12
 A. Rani et al. / ISA Transactions 52 (2013) 438–449
soft sensor is further enhanced by online training using past
measurements so that it adapts to the changes in input variables
of the process. The online trained ADALINE soft sensor, termed as
D-ADALINE soft sensor, leads to a new controller called DADIC.
The performance of ADIC and DADIC is also tested for set point
tracking and disturbance rejection. The DADIC is further improved
by first selecting mutual independent tray temperatures, then
appropriate inputs other than tray temperatures are selected and
lastly the optimum sampling interval is obtained. To conclude the
performance of dynamic inferential control scheme is much
robust and efficient than the static inferential control scheme.
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