Control-Oriented Modelling and Optimal Adaptive Control of Parallel Compressors

Compressors are widely used to transport gas offshore and onshore. Oil rigs and gas processing plants have several compressors operating either alone, in parallel or in trains. Hence, compressors must be controlled optimally to insure a high rate of production, and efficient power consumption. The aim of this paper is to provide a control algorithm to optimize the compressors operation in parallel in process industries, to minimize energy consumption in variable operating conditions. A dynamic control-oriented model of the compression system has been developed. The optimization algorithm is tested on an experimental prototype having two compressors connected in parallel. The developed optimization algorithm resulted in a better performance and a reduction of the total energy consumption compared to an equal load sharing scheme.