Limit cycles caused due to valve nonlinearity such as stiction can be eliminated with proper valve maintenance. Valve maintenance is undertaken during production stops, which are scheduled once every 6 months to 3 years. The loss of energy and product quality during this intermediate period can be quite high. Stiction compensation algorithms can mitigate this problem to a large extent. In this paper, two novel approaches for stiction compensation are proposed: (a) a simple two-move approach and (b) an optimization based approach much in the spirit of predictive control strategies. Both the approaches are based on a data-driven model for stiction. The merits and demerits of both these approaches are discussed. The results are illustrated using simulation case studies. The two-move approach is also validated on a liquid level system. (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd.