On May 8, 2025, during his research stay at the University of Pisa (UNIPI), Ing. Jozef Vargan delivered a seminar titled Polypropylene Polymerisation Reactor – Modelling and Control.
Jozef Vargan is a PhD researcher at the Institute of Information Engineering, Automation, and Mathematics, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (IAM STU-FCHPT), and is also affiliated with the Reactions and Process Engineering Laboratory (LRGP, CNRS) at the University of Lorraine. His research focuses on modelling and parameter estimation of industrial plants, with a particular interest in polymerization reactors, process optimization, and the application of multi-model predictive control strategies.
In his talk, Jozef highlighted the industrial importance of polypropylene (PP), which accounts for nearly 25% of global plastic production. The presentation was divided into two parts:
- Modelling of polymerisation reactors – focusing on kinetic models, their simplification, and the derivation of polymer properties relevant for achieving optimal product quality through process control.
- Predictive control of polymerisation processes – presenting a novel multi-model predictive control framework, which integrates state and output constraints across all models considered. Simulation studies demonstrated the advantages of this approach in terms of robustness and reference tracking near operational constraints, compared with existing methods.
The seminar concluded with an outlook on future challenges and directions in the multi-model control of polymerisation processes.
This talk provided valuable insights into bridging process modelling and advanced control methods, emphasizing the role of predictive control strategies in achieving optimal performance in industrial polymer production.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon under grant no. 101079342 (Fostering Opportunities Towards Slovak Excellence in Advanced Control for Smart Industries).
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