Pinto Thomás, Silva Moisés T da, Raffo Guilherme V, Euzébio Thiago A M
Instituto Tecnológico Vale, Robotics, Instrumentation and Control Lab., Ouro Preto, Brazil.
Graduate Program in Electrical Engineering, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 1;15(1):21398. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-09263-w.
Grinding operations, especially those involving semi-autogenous mills, account for a significant portion of energy use in mineral processing. In this work, we describe the application of an advanced regulatory control strategy in a copper plant aimed at improving energy efficiency through automation. The system combines cascade and feedforward control structures to attenuate variations in the mill load, a key factor influencing energy consumption and process stability. The control scheme was integrated into the plant's existing automation infrastructure and evaluated through a three-month industrial trial. By shifting from manual to automatic regulation of the feed rate, the plant reduced the influence of process disturbances and maintained more consistent operation. The automated system achieved a 5.84% reduction in specific energy consumption and a 1.90% increase in productivity. These results demonstrate the potential of enhanced regulatory control to deliver measurable performance gains with minimal changes to existing operations.
研磨作业，尤其是那些涉及半自磨机的作业，在矿物加工的能源消耗中占很大一部分。在这项工作中，我们描述了一种先进的调节控制策略在一家铜厂的应用，旨在通过自动化提高能源效率。该系统结合了串级和前馈控制结构，以减弱磨机负荷的变化，磨机负荷是影响能源消耗和过程稳定性的关键因素。该控制方案被集成到该厂现有的自动化基础设施中，并通过为期三个月的工业试验进行了评估。通过从手动调节进料速率转变为自动调节，该厂减少了过程干扰的影响，并保持了更稳定的运行。自动化系统实现了单位能耗降低5.84%，生产率提高1.90%。这些结果表明，增强的调节控制具有在对现有操作进行最小更改的情况下实现可衡量的性能提升的潜力。
