Extremism seeking control of a flotation circuit using peak air recovery

Abstract

A flotation circuit is simulated with an extremum seeking controller to keep the cells operating at the optimal operating point represented by peak air recovery. It is assumed that at this operating point, the froth layer is stabilised and the mineral recovery of the flotation cell is maximised resulting in optimal performance. The extremum seeking controller uses periodic perturbations in the aeration rate to steer the system through an unknown static map towards the peak in air recovery. The controller is able to find the peak air recovery operating point and track the point as it changes in the presence of external disturbances. The extremum seeking controller is ideally suited for model-independent long-term automated optimisation of a flotation circuit with a time-varying optimal operating point.