Process analytical technologies (PATs) have been rapidly developed for real-time measurement and control optimization of crystallization processes in the past twenty decades. This talk will present in-situ measurement methods of crystal size distribution (CSD), three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of crystal shape, by constructing a non-invasive microscopic imaging system along with improved camera calibration method. Moreover, enhanced spectral calibration methods are presented for measuring the solution concentration by the attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) during a crystallization process. Based on the real-time measured data, a moving horizon state estimation method is presented to conduct model predictive control (MPC) for process optimization. In addition, a surrogate model of Gaussian process regression (GPR) is built up based on the design of experiments (DoEs) with sensitivity analysis, which is then used for data-driven control and optimization of cooling crystallization. Illustrative applications to the cooling crystallization process of L-glutamic acid are shown to validate the real-time process measurement and control methods.

Tao Liu received the PhD degree in Control Science and Engineering from Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China, in 2006. He had been a postdoctoral research fellow and later a research assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology from May 2006 to April 2010, and an Alexander von Humboldt research fellow in the Institute of Process Systems Engineering at RWTH Aachen University in Germany from May 2010 to June 2012. He is a professor and head of the Institute of Advanced Measurement & Control Technology at Dalian University of Technology.

His research interests include in-situ measurement of industrial and chemical processes, data-driven process modelling and state estimation, robust process control, batch process optimization. He has published two monographs and over 160 academic papers.

He serves as an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, an editorial board member of International Journal of Control, a member of the Technical Committee on Chemical Process Control of IFAC, Technical Committee on System Identification and Adaptive Control of the IEEE Control System Society, Chinese Control Theory Committee and Process Control Committee.