Robust internal model control of a binary distillation column

The aim of this paper is to introduce an internal model control (IMC) design procedure for synthesizing two degrees-of-freedom (2-DOF) IMC controllers in a H/sup /spl infin// optimization framework. In order to evaluate the applicability of the proposed 2-DOF IMC approach in process industries, we will demonstrate the technique on one of the most common and most studied control problems in industry: a distillation column. It will be applied to an experimental methanol/water distillation column model. When applied to the distillation column, robust performance of the 2-DOF IMC controller is found to be significantly better than traditional single-loop P+I controllers.