Sliding mode control of a denitrifying biofilter (Q1960884)

The robust sliding mode control of a denitrifying biofilter is considered. The objective is to maintain the reactor output, the total concentration of nitrates and nitrites at a desired constant value by acting either on the influent flow rate or on the supplied ethanol concentration. The derived sliding mode control brings the system state into a sliding surface in the state space and maintains it on this surface by using a switching algorithm. It is shown that the controlled system is robust with respect to model uncertainties and parameter variations, provided the upper bounds of their absolute values are properly estimated. The simulation results show good tracking and convergence properties of the joint asymptotic estimator and the excellent performance of the sliding mode controller for applied set-point and parameter changes.