GENETIC ALGORITHMS APPLIED TO THE OPTIMIZATION OF GASIFICATION FOR A GIVEN FUEL

Miguel Caldas, Luisa G. Caldas, Viriato Semião

2004

Abstract

Gasification is a well-known technology that allows for a combustible gas to be obtained from a carbonaceous fuel by a partial oxidation process (POX). The resulting gas (synthesis gas or syngas) can be used either as a fuel or as feedstock for chemical production. Recently, gasification has also received a great deal of attention concerning power production possibilities through IGCC process (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle), which is currently the most environmentally friendly and efficient method for the production of electricity. Gasification allows for low grade fuels, or dirty fuels, to be used in an environmental acceptable way. Amongst these fuels are wastes from the petrochemical and other industries, which may vary in composition from shipment to shipment, and from lot to lot. If operating conditions are kept constant, this could result in lost of efficiency. This paper presents an application of Genetic Algorithms to optimise the operating parameters of a gasifier processing a given fuel. Two different objective functions are used: one to be used if hydrogen production is the main goal of gasification; other to be used when power/heat production is the aim of the process. Results show that the optimisation method developed is fast and simple enough to be used for on-line adjustment of the gasification operating parameters, for each fuel composition and gasification aim, thus improving the overall performance of the industrial process.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Caldas M., Caldas L. and Semião V. (2004). GENETIC ALGORITHMS APPLIED TO THE OPTIMIZATION OF GASIFICATION FOR A GIVEN FUEL . In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Volume 1: ICINCO, ISBN 972-8865-12-0, pages 58-63. DOI: 10.5220/0001140400580063

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icinco04,
author={Miguel Caldas and Luisa G. Caldas and Viriato Semião},
title={GENETIC ALGORITHMS APPLIED TO THE OPTIMIZATION OF GASIFICATION FOR A GIVEN FUEL},
booktitle={Proceedings of the First International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Volume 1: ICINCO,},
year={2004},
pages={58-63},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0001140400580063},
isbn={972-8865-12-0},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the First International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Volume 1: ICINCO,
TI - GENETIC ALGORITHMS APPLIED TO THE OPTIMIZATION OF GASIFICATION FOR A GIVEN FUEL
SN - 972-8865-12-0
AU - Caldas M.
AU - Caldas L.
AU - Semião V.
PY - 2004
SP - 58
EP - 63
DO - 10.5220/0001140400580063