Optimal energy control of a crushing process based on vertical shaft impactor

Highlights: • Energy optimal control strategy of a VSI crushing process is modeled. • Potential of a daily energy cost saving of about 49.7% is shown. • Potential of a daily energy saving of about 15.3% is shown. • Most of energy cost saving is due to the optimal load shifting under time-of-use tariff. • Energy saving is due to the operation of the process at the boundary of the admissible region. - Abstract: This paper presents an optimal control model to improve the operation energy efficiency of a vertical shaft impact (VSI) crushing process. The optimal control model takes the energy cost as the performance index to be minimized by accounting for the time-of-use tariff and process constraints such as storage capacity of the VSI crusher hopper, capacity of the main storage system, flow rate limits, cascade ratio setting, production requirement and product quality requirement. The control variables in the developed model are the belt conveyor feed rate, the material feed rate into the VSI crusher rotor, the bi-flow or cascade feed rate and the rotor tip speed of the crusher. These four control variables are optimally coordinated in order to improve the operation energy efficiency of the VSI crushing process. Simulation results based on a crushing process in a coal-fired power plant demonstrate a potential of a daily energy cost saving of about 49.7% and energy saving of about 15.3% in a high-demand season weekday.