The present work investigated the use of an echo state network for a gas lift oil well. The main contribution is the evaluation of the network performance under conditions normally faced in a real production system: noisy measurements, unmeasurable disturbances, sluggish behavior and model mismatch. The main pursued objective was to verify if this tool is suitable to compose a predictive control scheme for the analyzed operation. A simpler model was used to train the neural network and a more accurate process model was used to generate time series for validation. The system performance was investigated with distinct sample sizes for training, test and validation procedures and prediction horizons. The performance of the designed ESN was characterized in terms of slugging, setpoint changes and unmeasurable disturbances. It was observed that the size and the dynamic content of the training set tightly affected the network performance. However, for data sets with reasonable information contents, the obtained ESN performance could be regarded as very good, even when longer prediction horizons were proposed.

Effective process monitoring, and control rely on precise dynamic models that can capture the inherent nonlinearities of chemical systems. However, rigorous modeling of complex industrial processes can be computationally demanding. Meta modeling using machine learning methodologies offers a viable approach to generate computationally efficient surrogate representations. Specifically, Echo State Networks (ESNs) are a promising neural network approach for meta-modeling nonlinear dynamical systems. ESNs simplify training through fixed input weights while they focus learning on output weights. This study explores the development of ESN-based digital twins for a nonlinear dynamic process. An ESN is employed to construct a meta-model of a simulated continuously stirred tank reactor with biochemical kinetic. The network was trained on input-output data obtained from the simulation of an ordinary differential equation system, and the performance was evaluated both in-sample and out-of-sample. The results indicate that the ESN meta-model can successfully approximate the underlying dynamics, accurately capturing temporal evolution. A closed-loop digital twin deployment using the ESN surrogate also showed reliable behavior. This work presents initial steps toward developing digital twins of chemical processes using ESN-driven meta-modeling. The findings suggest ESNs can effectively generate computationally efficient surrogate representations of nonlinear dynamical systems. Such digital twins hold promise for online process monitoring and optimized control of industrial plants.