Introduction to the 2nd ALSTOM benchmark challenge on gasifier control

Pick up a copy of any proceedings of a conference on Systems & Control Engineering and it quickly becomes apparent that there are many different tools and approaches available to the Control Engineer. By organising a benchmarkchallenge it was hoped to achieve two things: (i) to provide an opportunity for participants to present, compare, discuss and debate a number of control system design approaches on an industrial plant model; (ii) to provide Control Engineers from academia and industry with a chance to evaluate a range of control techniques on a level footing. The model of a gasifier, provided by ALSTOM Power Technology Centre, is of an industrial standard and has been validated against a set of real data from test facilities. This makes the challenge all the more relevant to practicing engineers. The paper sets out the specifications and describes the design and performance of the baseline Proportional + Integral controller that was distributed with the challenge.