IMPLEMENTATION PROCEDURE OF AN ADVANCED SUPERVISORY AND CONTROL STRATEGY IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY
Abstract This paper describes the different steps followed in implementing a temperature controller and a supervisory controller in a Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system to control a 60 and 160 l reactor in a pharmaceutical factory. These reactors are used to produce the initial quantities of drugs needed to perform clinical tests. The chemical reactions involved are often changed (several times a week). The different steps of the project will be presented: • design of a new heating–cooling system, • design of the predictive and Supervisory Control Algorithm (SCA), • connection of the SCA to the SCADA system, • experimental validation according to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP). 
This SCA has been in daily use as the standard control system for more than 2 years.
A new strategy for temperature control of batch reactors: experimental application
In this paper, a new strategy for temperature control of multipurpose batch reactors using a cascaded model based control is presented. This strategy is based on the use of the thermal flux as the manipulated variable. At each sampling time, the master controller computes the thermal flux to be exchanged between the reactor content and the thermal fluid flowing inside the jacket. This information is then used to determine the right fluid and to evaluate the opening value of the control valve. For this purpose a physical modelling of the thermal system has been developed. Finally, the control valve opening degree is computed and applied to the plant.
Numerical tools applied to power reactor noise analysis
In order to be able to calculate the space- and frequency-dependent neutron noise in real inhomogeneous systems in two-group theory, a code was developed for the calculation of the Green's function (dynamic transfer function) of such systems. This paper reports on the development as well as the test and application of the numerical tools employed. The code that was developed yields the space-dependence of the fluctuations of the neutron flux induced by fluctuating properties of the medium in the two-group diffusion approximation and in a two-dimensional representation of heterogeneous systems, for both critical systems and non-critical systems with an external source. Some applications of these tools to power reactor noise analysis are then described, including the unfolding of the parameters of the noise source from the induced neutron noise, measured at a few discrete locations throughout the core. Other concrete applications concern the study of the space-dependence of the Decay Ratio in Boiling Water Reactors, the noise-based estimation of the Moderator Temperature Coefficient of reactivity in Pressurized Water Reactors, the modeling of the beam- and shell-mode core-barrel vibrations in Pressurized Water Reactors, and the investigation of the validity of the point-kinetic approximation in subcritical systems driven by an external source. In most of these applications, calculations performed using the code are compared with at-power plant measurements. Power reactor noise analysis applications of the above type, i.e. core monitoring without disturbing plant operation, is of particular interest in the framework of the extensive program of power uprates worldwide.