Desulfurization characteristics of slaked lime and regulation optimization of circulating fluidized bed flue gas desulfurization process--A combined experimental and numerical simulation study

Circulating fluidized bed flue gas desulfurization(CFB-FGD) process has been widely applied in recent years. However, high cost caused by the use of high-quality slaked lime and difficult operation due to the complex flow field are two issues which have received great attention. Accordingly, a laboratory-scale fluidized bed reactor was constructed to investigate the effects of physical properties and external conditions on desulfurization performance of slaked lime, and the conclusions were tried out in an industrial-scale CFB-FGD tower. After that, a numerical model of the tower was established based on computational particle fluid dynamics(CPFD) and two-film theory. After comparison and validation with actual operation data, the effects of operating parameters on gas-solid distribution and desulfurization characteristics were investigated. The results of experiments and industrial trials showed that the use of slaked lime with a calcium hydroxide content of approximately 80% and particle size greater than 40 μm could significantly reduce the cost of desulfurizer. Simulation results showed that the flow field in the desulfurization tower was skewed under the influence of circulating ash. We obtained optimal operating conditions of 7.5 kg·s^(-1)for the atomized water flow, 70 kg·s^(-1)for circulating ash flow, and 0.56 kg·s^(-1)for slaked lime flow, with desulfurization efficiency reaching 98.19% and the exit flue gas meeting the ultraclean emission and safety requirements. All parameters selected in the simulation were based on engineering examples and had certain application reference significance.

Operational optimization of copper flotation process based on the weighted Gaussian process regression and index-oriented adaptive differential evolution algorithm

Concentrate copper grade(CCG)is one of the important production indicators of copper flotation processes,and keeping the CCG at the set value is of great significance to the economic benefit of copper flotation industrial processes.This paper addresses the fluctuation problem of CCG through an operational optimization method.Firstly,a density-based affinity propagationalgorithm is proposed so that more ideal working condition categories can be obtained for the complex raw ore properties.Next,a Bayesian network(BN)is applied to explore the relationship between the operational variables and the CCG.Based on the analysis results of BN,a weighted Gaussian process regression model is constructed to predict the CCG that a higher prediction accuracy can be obtained.To ensure the predicted CCG is close to the set value with a smaller magnitude of the operation adjustments and a smaller uncertainty of the prediction results,an index-oriented adaptive differential evolution(IOADE)algorithm is proposed,and the convergence performance of IOADE is superior to the traditional differential evolution and adaptive differential evolution methods.Finally,the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed methods are verified by the experiments on a copper flotation industrial process.

Assessing environmental impact:Micro-energy network optimization in a Chinese industrial park

Micro-energy systems contribute significantly to environmental improvement by reducing dependence on power grids through the utilization of multiple renewable energy sources.This study quantified the environmental impact of a micro-energy network system in an industrial park through a life cycle assessment using the operation of the micro-energy network over a year as the functional unit and“cradle-to-gate”as the system boundary.Based on the baseline scenario,a natural gas generator set was added to replace central heating,and the light pipes were expanded to constitute the optimized scenario.The results showed that the key impact categories for both scenarios were global warming,fine particulate matter formation,human carcinogenic toxicity,and human non-carcinogenic toxicity.The overall environmental impact of the optimized scenario was reduced by 68%compared to the baseline scenario.A sensitivity analysis of the key factors showed that electricity from the power grid was the key impact factor in both scenarios,followed by central heating and natural gas.Therefore,to reduce the environmental impact of network systems,it is necessary to further optimize the grid power structure.The research approach can be used to optimize micro-energy networks and evaluate the environmental impact of different energy systems.

DSS Scheme for Operation Optimization Problem on Power Plants

Based on the target analysis of the operation optimization for power plants, a novel system scheme called operation optimization decision support system (OODSS) is brought forward. According to the structure and design thinking of decision support system (DSS), the overall structure of the OODSS is studied, and the scheme of the sub systems in the OODSS such as the user interface system, the problem processing system, the database system, the model base system, the expert system (ES) and the data mining sy...

Operation optimization mode for nozzle governing steam turbine unit

Based on tests and theoretical calculation an optimum steam admission mode is proposed which can effectively solve the steam-excited vibration.An operation mode jointly considering the valve point and operation load is proposed based on the analysis and study of a large number of unit operation optimization methods.According to the steam-excited vibration that occurs during the optimization process when the nozzle governing steam turbine switches from a single valve to multi-valves a steam admission optimization program is proposed.This comprehensive program considering the steam-excited vibration is applied to a 600 MW steam turbine unit to obtain the optimum sliding pressure curve and the optimum operation mode and the steam-excited vibration is solved successfully.

Influence of Design Margin on Operation Optimization and Control Performance of Chemical Processes

Operation optimization is an effective method to explore potential economic benefits for existing plants. The m.aximum potential benefit from operationoptimization is determined by the distances between current operating point and process constraints, which is related to the margins of design variables. Because of various ciisturbances in chemical processes, some distances must be reserved for fluctuations of process variables and the optimum operating point is not on some process constraints. Thus the benefit of steady-state optimization can not be fully achied（ed while that of dynamic optimization can be really achieved. In this study, the steady-state optimizationand dynamic optimization are used, and the potential benefit-is divided into achievable benefit for profit and unachievable benefit for control. The fluid catalytic cracking unit （FCCU） is used for case study. With the analysis on how the margins of design variables influence the economic benefit and control performance, the bottlenecks of process design are found and appropriate control structure can be selected.

Operation optimization of the steel manufacturing process: A brief review

Against the realistic background of excess production capacity, product structure imbalance, and high material and energy consumption in steel enterprises, the implementation of operation optimization for the steel manufacturing process is essential to reduce the production cost, increase the production or energy efficiency, and improve production management. In this study, the operation optimization problem of the steel manufacturing process, which needed to go through a complex production organization from customers' orders to workshop production, was analyzed. The existing research on the operation optimization techniques, including process simulation, production planning, production scheduling, interface scheduling, and scheduling of auxiliary equipment, was reviewed. The literature review reveals that, although considerable research has been conducted to optimize the operation of steel production, these techniques are usually independent and unsystematic.Therefore, the future work related to operation optimization of the steel manufacturing process based on the integration of multi technologies and the intersection of multi disciplines were summarized.

Operation optimization of plugged screen cleanup by rotary water jetting

The rotary water jetting is one of the most important techniques for horizontal well cleanup.The jet flow is used to remove plugging particles from sand control screens to recover their permeability.Currently,the operation optimization of this technique depends mainly on experience due to absence of applicable evaluation and design models for removing plugging materials.This paper presents an experimental setup to simulate the cleanup process of plugged screens by rotary water jetting on the surface and to evaluate the performance of a jetting tool.Using real plugged screens pulled from damaged wells,a series of tests were performed,and the qualitative relationships between the cleanup efficiency and various operational parameters,such as the type of fluids used,flow rate,mode of tool movement,etc.,were obtained.The test results indicated that the cleanup performance was much better when the rotary jetting tool moved and stopped periodically for a certain time than that when it reciprocated at a constant speed.To be exact,it was desirable for the rotary jetting tool to move for 1.5-2 m and stop for 2-4 min,which was called the ＂move-stop-move＂ mode.Good cleanup performance could be obtained at high flow rates,and the flow rate was recommended to be no lower than 550-600 L/min.The test results also indicated that complex mud acid was better than clean water in terms of cleanup performance.Good cleanup efficiency and high screen permeability recovery could be achieved for severely plugged screens.Rotary jetting is preferred for the cleanup of horizontal wells with severely plugged screens,and the screen permeability recovery ratio may reach 20％ if optimized operation parameters were used.

Process optimization of an industrial acetic acid dehydration progress via heterogeneous azeotropic distillation

The simulated process model of the HAc dehydration process under actual overloaded condition was conducted by amending the model of standard condition in our previous work using the process data collected from actual production. Based on the actual process model, the operation optimization analysis of each plant(HAc dehydration column, decanter and NPA recycle column) was conducted using Residue Curve Maps(RCMs),sensitivity analysis and software optimization module. Based on the optimized parameters, the influence of feed impurity MA and the temperature of decanter on the separating effect and energy consumption of the whole process were analyzed. Then the whole process operation optimizing strategy was proposed with the objective that the total reboiler duty Q Total of C-1 and C-3 reaches the minimum value, keeping C-1 and C-3 at their optimized separation parameters obtained above, connecting all the broken recycle and connection streams, and using the temperature of D-1 as operation variable. The optimization result shows that the total reboiler duty Q Total of the whole process can reach the minimum value of 128.32 × 10~6 k J·h^(-1) when the temperature of decanter is 352.35 K, and it can save 5.94 × 10~6 k J·h^(-1), about 2.56 t·h^(-1) low-pressure saturated vapor.

Optimization operation model of electricity market considering renewable energy accommodation and flexibility requirement

The renewable portfolio standard has been promoted in parallel with the reform of the electricity market,and the flexibility requirement of the power system has rapidly increased.To promote renewable energy consumption and improve power system flexibility,a bi-level optimal operation model of the electricity market is proposed.A probabilistic model of the flexibility requirement is established,considering the correlation between wind power,photovoltaic power,and load.A bi-level optimization model is established for the multi-markets;the upper and lower models represent the intra-provincial market and inter-provincial market models,respectively.To efficiently solve the model,it is transformed into a mixed-integer linear programming model using the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker condition and Lagrangian duality theory.The economy and flexibility of the model are verified using a provincial power grid as an example.

Peak shaving operation optimization of high proportion new energypower generation considering wind-solar complementationand source-load coupling

To optimize peaking operation when high proportion new energy accesses to power grid,evaluation indexes are proposed which simultaneously consider wind-solar complementation and source-load coupling.A typical wind-solar power output scene model based on peaking demand is established which has anti-peaking characteristic.This model uses balancing scenes and key scenes with probability distribution based on improved Latin hypercube sampling(LHS)algorithm and scene reduction technology to illustrate the influence of wind-solar on peaking demand.Based on this,a peak shaving operation optimization model of high proportion new energy power generation is established.The various operating indexes after optimization in multi-scene peaking are calculated,and the ability of power grid peaking operation is compared whth that considering wind-solar complementation and source-load coupling.Finally,a case of high proportion new energy verifies the feasibility and validity of the proposed operation strategy.

A Knowledge Base System for Operation Optimization: Design and Implementation Practice for the Polyethylene Process

Setting up a knowledge base is a helpful way to optimize the operation of the polyethylene process by improving the performance and the ef ciency of reuse of information and knowledge two critical ele- ments in polyethylene smart manufacturing. In this paper, we propose an overall structure for a knowl- edge base based on practical customer demand and the mechanism of the polyethylene process. First, an ontology of the polyethylene process constructed using the seven-step method is introduced as a carrier for knowledge representation and sharing. Next, a prediction method is presented for the molecular weight distribution (MWD) based on a back propagation (BP) neural network model, by analyzing the relationships between the operating conditions and the parameters of the MWD. Based on this network, a differential evolution algorithm is introduced to optimize the operating conditions by tuning the MWD. Finally, utilizing a MySQL database and the Java programming language, a knowledge base system for the operation optimization of the polyethylene process based on a browser/server framework is realized.

Interpretable machine learning optimization(InterOpt)for operational parameters:A case study of highly-efficient shale gas development

An algorithm named InterOpt for optimizing operational parameters is proposed based on interpretable machine learning,and is demonstrated via optimization of shale gas development.InterOpt consists of three parts:a neural network is used to construct an emulator of the actual drilling and hydraulic fracturing process in the vector space(i.e.,virtual environment);:the Sharpley value method in inter-pretable machine learning is applied to analyzing the impact of geological and operational parameters in each well(i.e.,single well feature impact analysis):and ensemble randomized maximum likelihood(EnRML)is conducted to optimize the operational parameters to comprehensively improve the efficiency of shale gas development and reduce the average cost.In the experiment,InterOpt provides different drilling and fracturing plans for each well according to its specific geological conditions,and finally achieves an average cost reduction of 9.7%for a case study with 104 wells.

Daily Operation Optimization of a Residential Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell Power System Using Genetic Algorithm

To decrease the cost of electricity generation of a residential molten carbonate fuel cell （MCFC） power system, multi-crossover genetic algorithm （MCGA）, which is based on ＂multi-crossover＂ and ＂usefulness-based selection rule＂, is presented to minimize the daily fuel consumption of an experimental 10kW MCFC power system for residential application. Under the operating conditions obtained by MCGA, the operation constraints are satisfied and fuel consumption is minimized. Simulation and experimental results indicate that MCGA is efficient for the operation optimization of MCFC power systems.

Multi-Objective Optimization of Water-Sedimentation-Power in Reservoir Based on Pareto-Optimal Solution

A multi-objective optimal operation model of water-sedimentation-power in reservoir is established with power-generation, sedimentation and water storage taken into account. Moreover, the inertia weight self-adjusting mechanism and Pareto-optimal archive are introduced into the particle swarm optimization and an improved multi-objective particle swarm optimization （IMOPSO） is proposed. The IMOPSO is employed to solve the optimal model and obtain the Pareto-optimal front. The multi-objective optimal operation of Wanjiazhai Reservoir during the spring breakup was investigated with three typical flood hydrographs. The results show that the former method is able to obtain the Pareto-optimal front with a uniform distribution property. Different regions （A, B, C） of the Pareto-optimal front correspond to the optimized schemes in terms of the objectives of sediment deposition, sediment deposition and power generation, and power generation, respectively. The level hydrographs and outflow hydrographs show the operation of the reservoir in details. Compared with the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-Ⅱ （NSGA-Ⅱ）, IMOPSO has close global optimization capability and is suitable for multi-objective optimization problems.

Intelligent decision support system of operation-optimization in copper smelting converter

An artificial intelligence technique was applied to the optimization of flux adding systems and air blasting systems, the display of on line parameters, forecasting of mass and compositions of slag in the slagging period, optimization of cold material adding systems and air blasting systems, the display of on line parameters, and the forecasting of copper mass in the copper blow period in copper smelting converters. They were integrated to build the Intelligent Decision Support System of the Operation Optimization of Copper Smelting Converter(IDSSOOCSC), which is self learning and self adaptating. Development steps, monoblock structure and basic functions of the IDSSOOCSC were introduced. After it was applied in a copper smelting converter, every production quota was clearly improved after IDSSOOCSC had been run for 4 months. Blister copper productivity is increased by 6%, processing load of cold input is increased by 8% and average converter life span is improved from 213 to 235 furnace times.

Solving chemical dynamic optimization problems with ranking-based differential evolution algorithms

Dynamic optimization problems(DOPs) described by differential equations are often encountered in chemical engineering. Deterministic techniques based on mathematic programming become invalid when the models are non-differentiable or explicit mathematical descriptions do not exist. Recently, evolutionary algorithms are gaining popularity for DOPs as they can be used as robust alternatives when the deterministic techniques are invalid. In this article, a technology named ranking-based mutation operator(RMO) is presented to enhance the previous differential evolution(DE) algorithms to solve DOPs using control vector parameterization. In the RMO, better individuals have higher probabilities to produce offspring, which is helpful for the performance enhancement of DE algorithms. Three DE-RMO algorithms are designed by incorporating the RMO. The three DE-RMO algorithms and their three original DE algorithms are applied to solve four constrained DOPs from the literature. Our simulation results indicate that DE-RMO algorithms exhibit better performance than previous non-ranking DE algorithms and other four evolutionary algorithms.

Multi-objective optimization of p-xylene oxidation process using an improved self-adaptive differential evolution algorithm

The rise in the use of global polyester fiber contributed to strong demand of the Terephthalic acid （TPA）. The liquid-phase catalytic oxidation of p-xylene （PX） to TPA is regarded as a critical and efficient chemical process in industry [ 1 ]. PX oxidation reaction involves many complex side reactions, among which acetic acid combustion and PX combustion are the most important. As the target product of this oxidation process, the quality and yield of TPA are of great concern. However, the improvement of the qualified product yield can bring about the high energy consumption, which means that the economic objectives of this process cannot be achieved simulta- neously because the two objectives are in conflict with each other. In this paper, an improved self-adaptive multi-objective differential evolution algorithm was proposed to handle the multi-objective optimization prob- lems. The immune concept is introduced to the self-adaptive multi-objective differential evolution algorithm （SADE） to strengthen the local search ability and optimization accuracy. The proposed algorithm is successfully tested on several benchmark test problems, and the performance measures such as convergence and divergence metrics are calculated. Subsequently, the multi-objective optimization of an industrial PX oxidation process is carried out using the proposed immune self-adaptive multi-objective differential evolution algorithm （ISADE）. Optimization results indicate that application oflSADE can greatly improve the yield of TPA with low combustion loss without degenerating TA quality.

An improved portfolio optimization model for oil and gas investment selection

For oil company decision-makers,the principal concern is how to allocate their limited resources into the most valuable opportunities.Recently a new management philosophy,＂Beyond NPV＂,has received more and more international attention.Economists and senior executives are seeking effective alternative analysis approaches for traditional technical and economic evaluation methods.The improved portfolio optimization model presented in this article represents an applicable technique beyond NPV for doing capital budgeting.In this proposed model,not only can oil company executives achieve trade-offs between returns and risks to their risk tolerance,but they can also employ an ＂operational premium＂ to distinguish their ability to improve the performance of the underlying projects.A simulation study based on 19 overseas upstream assets owned by a large oil company in China is conducted to compare optimized utility with non-optimized utility.The simulation results show that the petroleum optimization model including ＂operational premium＂ is more in line with the rational investors＇ demand.

Enhanced exergy cost optimization of operating conditions in FCCU main fractionator

Exergy indicates the maximal energy that can do work effectively. Different from optimization of product quality or calculation of generic energy conservation in most previous studies, the application of exergy analysis and exergy cost optimization in petrochemical industry is of great economic and environmental significance. Based on the main fractionator in Jiujiang Petrochemical Complex No. 2 FCCU, an enhanced exergy cost optimization under different operating conditions by adjusting set points of temperature and valves opening degree for flow control is studied in this paper in order to reduce exergy cost and improve the quality of energy. A steadystate optimization algorithm to enhance exergy availability and an objective function comprehensively considering exergy loss are proposed. On the basis of ensuring the quality of petroleum products, the economic benefits can be improved by optimizing the controllable variables due to the fact that exergy cost is decreased.