The boiler water softening - A fuzzy approach

Abstract

In Cane Sugar Industry, boiler is one of the important devices. The steam generated by the boiler is used for various sugar processes and for the generation of electric power. Regulation of the fuel-supply, excess air required in combustion and water flow makes the operation of the boiler efficient. The water required for this must be soft and clean. In water softening process the operator role is very vital. To exploit human experience we propose a fuzzy support to operate water-softening process smoothly. Fuzzy Logic encodes the human knowledge and emulates deductive thinking to infer conclusions form diffused, overlapped space of ideas and concepts. This water softening technique reduces the corrosion and decreases the scale formation in the boiler hence yielding more efficiency of the boiler. The softening process utilizes the Graphical User Interface (GUI) tool from MATLAB Fuzzy Logic Toolbox and simulation results are presented.