AbstractA single variable pole‐placement self‐tuning controller (PPSTC) is used to simulate examples typical of chemical processes; i.e., open‐loop stable, unstable, and unstable non‐minimum phase systems with unknown varying process dead time. The PPSTC is shown to be effective in each case. Set‐point tracking and rejection of randomly occurring deterministic disturbances for all three types of processes are achieved. Simultaneous estimation of process parameters and process time delay is realized by using a recursive extended least squar