Applications of genetic algorithms in chemical engineering II: Case studies

Abstract

Chemical engineering systems encompass a wide variety of processes from the production of bulk chemicals to highly sophisticated specialty chemicals, their purifications, control, planning, and scheduling. Optimization is an important operation to refine the complex decision-making of these systems. Recently, genetic algorithm (GA) has been used extensively for such applications due to its ability to handle multiple objectives simultaneously. Many new adaptations of GA have been developed over the last two decades to facilitate the solution of such complex problems. The rapidly improving computational speeds further bolsters the effective utilization of these algorithms. A few interesting studies are the optimization of polymerization reactors, catalytic reactors, separations equipment, planning and scheduling, combinatorial problems, and data-driven applications. These studies give interesting insights to improve the operations and also to pave the way to handle other complex interdisciplinary systems.