The Extended Kalman Filter for State Estimation of Dynamic UV Flash Processes

We present an extended Kalman filter for state estimation of semi-explicit index-1 differential-algebraic equations. It is natural to model dynamic UV flash processes with such differential-algebraic equations. The UV flash is a mathematical statement of the second law of thermodynamics. It is therefore important to thermodynamically rigorous models of many phase equilibrium processes.

State estimation of UV flash processes has applications in control, prediction, monitoring, and fault detection of chemical processes in the oil and gas industry, e.g. separation, distillation, drilling of oil wells, multiphase flow in oil pipes, and oil production. We present a numerical example of a UV flash separation process.

It involves soft sensing of vapor-liquid compositions based on temperature and pressure measurements.