Multivariable Control of Heat Pumps Coupled to Thermal Energy Storage Systems for Heat Integration in Non-Continuous Processes

More than half of the end-energy consumption in the Swiss industrial sector is related to process heat. Furthermore, many industrial processes are not operated continuously. To exploit heat recovery potential in such processes, heat pumps coupled to thermal energy storage systems can be integrated. This integration, however, introduces new interconnections of process streams, leading to new challenges regarding the control of the system. Aiming to enable the reduction of energy consumption in the industry, these new challenges are investigated in this work. To overcome the aforementioned challenges, the overall control task is separated into a real-time and an energy management task. With model predictive control, an advanced control method is proposed for the energy management task of the system. This control method allows for a minimization of the energy consumption while ensuring operability. A simulation study performed with a test case demonstrates the operability of the combined control strategy. It is shown that the model predictive controller can reject unknown disturbances through the planning of the optimal inputs necessary to maintain the system operationally.

Studienbetreuer: Beat Wellig