Performance optimization of multiple stage evaporator using interior-point method and metaheuristic approaches in environment of real-time plant complexities

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to maximize the energy efficiency of Multiple Stage Evaporator (MSE) to increase the solid concentration of the black liquor in the Kraft recovery process. The incorporation of different energy reduction schemes ensures a considerable magnification in energy efficiency, which is realized by developing a set of nonlinear energy models of the MSE. These models are optimized to attain the optimum process parameters that estimate the optimum energy efficiency in Steam Economic (SE) and Steam Consumption (SC). The formulated optimization problems are efficiently solved using three novel approaches, Interior Point Method, Particle Swarm Optimization, and Artificial Electric Field Algorithm. With these algorithms’ advent, the obtained results are approaching efficient outcomes (SE increased by 77.58% and SC decreased by 26.99% compared to real-time plant data). Further, the present work investigates the influence of Boiling Point Elevation and Fouling’s effect on energy efficiency, which causes a reduction in SE (7.189). Finally, this study extends up to utilizing the waste steam as a heat source, collected from the condensate to accelerate the evaporation process, enhancing the SE by 2.94%.

KEYWORDS:

• Nonlinear Energy Modeling
• boiling Point Elevation
• fouling
• nonlinear Convex Optimization
• metaheuristic Approaches