ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY

ADDIS ABABA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

CHEMICAL AND BIO-ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

ENGINEERING BIOLOGY PAPER WORK

GROUP MEMBERS
NAME: ID.NO:
1. Yohannes lemi........................................................................UGR/2955/12

2. Selamawit admasie................................................................UGR/0022 /12

3. Tesfaye bulti............................................................................. UGR/4207/12

SUB. TO: Shimelis (Dr)

DATE: 9/2/2021

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 Table of content page number

1 Introduction................................................................................. 2

1.1 back ground of the paper ….................................................... 2

1.2objective …..........................................................................3

2 what is AI.........................................................................…........... 3

2.1 what are the app areas of AI on chemical engineering……………. 4

2.2 Application of AI in mineral exploration............................................ 4

2.3 Application of AI in Manufacturing: planning and configuration........6

2.4 Application of AI in solid waste management......................................8

2.5 Application of AI in chemical process modeling................................. 9

2.6 Application of AI in optimization of chemical processes....................11

3 Conclusion....................................................................................... 12

4 Reference..........................................................................................13

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1 Introduction
Artificial intelligence (AI) applications in chemical engineering have increased
dramatically recently. This chapter deals with various applications of artificial
intelligence (AI) in the chemical engineering field including process such as
modeling, optimization, process control, fault detection and diagnosis. The aim of
the chapter is to provide an overview of the field by presenting the capabilities and
limitations of using the AI approach.
It is shown that complexities of conventional approaches when dealing with
chemical processes which are inherently highly nonlinear can be tackled through
the application of AI methods. Some of the illustrative relevant examples are also
presented.

1.1 Back ground of the paper:

It is quite understandable that many chemical engineers are excited about the potential
applications of AI, and machine learning (ML) in particular, for use in such
applications as catalyst design. It might seem that this prospect offers a novel approach
to challenging, long-standing problems in chemical engineering using AI. However,
the use of AI in chemical engineering is not new—it is, in fact, a 35-year-old ongoing
program with some remarkable successes along the way.

The current excitement about artificial intelligence (AI), particularly machine learning
(ML), is contagious. The expectation that AI is poised to “revolutionize,” perhaps even
take over, humanity has elicited prophetic visions and concerns from some luminaries.

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1.2 objectives of the paper

The aim of this paper is to provide some explanation about the application of
AI programming, AI principles, expert systems and neural networks in
chemical engineering. It introduces the application of AI in many aspects of
chemical engineering. A key goal is to move beyond the principles of AI
into its applications in chemical engineering.

2 What is AI?

➢ Artificial intelligence (AI), the ability of a digital computer or computer

controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent
beings. The term is frequently applied to the project of developing systems
endowed with the intellectual processes characteristic of humans, such as the
ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from past experience.
Since the development of the digital computer in the 1940s, it has been
demonstrated that computers can be programmed to carry out very complex
tasks as, for example, discovering proofs for mathematical theorems or
playing chess—with great proficiency. Still, despite continuing advances in
computer processing speed and memory capacity, there are as yet no
programs that can match human flexibility over wider domains or in tasks
requiring much everyday knowledge. On the other hand, some programs
have attained the performance levels of human experts and professionals in
performing certain specific tasks, so that artificial intelligence in this limited
sense is found in applications as diverse as medical diagnosis, computer
search engines, and voice or handwriting recognition.

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 2.1 application areas of AI in chemical engineering

AI have the following major application area in chemical engineering:

 mineral exploration
 process control in several industries
 chemical synthesis and analysis
 manufacturing and configuration of waste management
 signal process in industries
 intelligent CAD
 chemical process monitoring
 optimization of chemical process
 fault detection and diagnosis of chemicals
Now let us see some of the application of the AI in chemical engineering in detail.

2.2 Application of AI in mineral exploration

The first step is finding a place to mine. This mineral exploration step is critical to
mining operations. A company could build the most aggressively automated and
impressively efficient operation and it would be worthless unless there were good
material in the ground to extract. Applying artificial intelligence and machine
learning to the task of mineral prospecting and exploration is a very new
phenomenon, which is gaining interest in the industry

➢ At the 2017 Disrupt Mining event in Toronto, Canada, two of the five
finalists were companies focused on using machine learning in mining:
Kore Geodsystems and Goldspot Discovery.

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➢ Where AI is most directly in use in the mining industry right now is to
improve efficiency. Mines are often giant industrial operations. Many of
them are using the same basic advances in robots and smart sensors that we
see in factories to improve their performance in mining
➢ Mines are heavy industry that actually makes them ideal place for the early
commercial use of self-driving vehicles. Mine equipment and trucks tend to
travel relatively slowly. They also operate in well-defined and highly
controlled areas. Trucks used at a mine don’t need to worry about events like
children chasing a ball into the middle of the street or erratic drunk drivers,
which make it so challenging to program an autonomous vehicle to operate
perfectly on urban roads. That is why they have already been deployed at
mines for years.
➢ For example the mining company Rio Tinto has led the way in the use of
this technology. They have been steadily expanding their giant autonomous
ore hauling truck fleet for years and now currently use a fleet of 76 trucks at
their mining operations in Australia. The trucks are produced by Japanese
manufacturer Komatsu and remotely overseen by operators in Perth.
➢ According to Rio Tinto the trucks are safer and roughly 15 percent cheaper
to operate than ones with humans behind the wheel. The trucks can operate
24/7 without the need to stop for shift changes or bathroom breaks. This
video below shows how they work and how the controlled environment of a
mine makes it an easier way to use the technology.

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 Figures of self-Driving Haulers – Rio Tinto, Volvo is one of the results of AI

2.3 Application of AI in Manufacturing: planning and configuration

➢ Intelligent manufacturing is a new manufacturing model and the technical

means by which new information and communication technology, intelligent
science and technology, large manufacturing technology (including design,
production, management, testing, and integration), system engineering
technology, and related product technology are integrated with the whole
system and lifecycle of product development.
➢ The life cycle of manufacturing thus uses autonomous sensing,
interconnection, collaboration, learning, analysis, cognition, decision making,
control, and the execution of human, machine, material, and environmental
information to enable the integration and optimization of various aspects of a
manufacturing enterprise or group, including three elements

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 (people/organizations, operational management, and equipment and
technology) and five flows (information flow, logistics flow, capital flow,
knowledge flow, and service flow). This facilitates production and provides
a high efficiency, high quality, cost-effective, and environmentfriendly
service for users, and therefore improves the market competitiveness of the
manufacturing enterprise or group.
➢ AI technology facilitates the development of new models, means, and
forms, system architecture, and technology systems in the domain of
intelligent manufacturing
✓ New models: Internet-based, service-oriented, collaborative, customizable,
flexible, and socialized intelligent manufacturing system that is used to
facilitate production and provide services to users.
✓ New means: human-machine integrated smart manufacturing systems
featuring digitalization, Internet of Things, virtualization, service,
collaboration, customization, flexibility, and intelligence.
✓ New form: intelligent manufacturing ecology with the characteristics of
ubiquitous interconnection, data-drivenness, cross-border integration,
autonomous intelligence, and mass innovation.
✓ The deep integration of the application of these models, means, and forms
will ultimately form an ecosystem of intelligent manufacturing (Fig. 1).

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2.4 Application of AI in solid waste management
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 267.8
million tons of municipal solid waste was generated in 2017, amounting to 4.51
pounds per person, per day. In other words, waste management facilities can use all
the help they can get. Let’s take a look at the diverse range of applications of AI
for waste management.

➢ The role of AI in waste management begins with intelligent garbage bins.

Waste management companies take advantage of Internet of Things (IoT)
sensors to monitor the fullness of trash receptacles throughout the city. This
allows municipalities to optimize waste collection routes, times, and
frequencies.
➢ Why optimize? Optimization improves the speed at which garbage bins are
emptied while lowering the cost of labor and fuel consumption. But IoT
sensors can sense more than just fullness.
➢ Computer vision annotation and machine learning algorithms allow these
sensors to distinguish between different types of garbage as the bins are
being filled. For example, an intelligent waste bin developed by Bin.e uses
machine learning to identify, categorize, and sort waste immediately after
it’s thrown away.

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 ➢ Smart bins are often paired with an app that lets users know the location of
the nearest available waste bin, preventing bins from overflowing.

Smart sorting | Keymark

➢ Sorting plastic and recycling waste is a major bottleneck for most waste
management facilities. Why is this the case? The vast majority of recycling
processes begin with a single-sort system, meaning all recycling materials
end up in the same box. When this box reaches a facility, items like plastic
and cardboard must then be separated.
2.5 Application of AI in chemical process modeling
Chemical process models which present the system behavior are useful in all
phases of chemical engineering, from research and design to optimization
and control and even plant operations.
Generally,there are two major types of modeling approaches in chemical
engineering, namely
i) Mechanistic (white box, first principle): fundamental physical and
chemical laws, such as conservation laws, construct the basis of the model. This
approach contains algebraic and differential equations which involve mass, energy
and momentum balances. Due to the large number of variables affecting the
process behavior and complex mathematical equations governing the system, many
chemical processes are nonlinear and complicated. Consequently, it is hard and

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sometimes even impossible to present them by mechanistic models. Even if such a
model has been developed, it might be impractical to solve or identify its
parameters. Moreover, a mechanistic model needs detailed knowledge and a lot of
skill and ingenuity to incorporate the basic phenomena of the process in the model.
Difficulties can arise from poor knowledge. In some cases, considering some
assumptions such as physical properties’ constancy, ideality of gas phase and
linearization of the nonlinear equations of the model is inevitable, which all impose
limitations on the model leading to the reduction of the model’s robustness.
ii) AI-based techniques: have demonstrated their superb ability and have
received much attention for chemical process modeling. These techniques, for
which developing detailed knowledge of the process is of less concern, may
overcome the drawbacks of the mechanistic approach when dealing with complex
and nonlinear systems. Using AI-based methods, inherently qualitative variables in
chemical processes like catalyst deactivation in reactors can also be considered in
the model, while these types of variables are not possible to implement in
mechanistic models.
The most common methods of AI for modeling purposes in chemical
engineering are:
• ANN and fuzzy logic, which sometimes are hybridized with evolutionary
algorithms.
• In addition to ANN and fuzzy logic methods, their hybrid scheme named
adaptive-network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) which is actually a
fuzzy inference system implemented in the framework of adaptive networks
has also been applied for modeling purposes in chemical engineering.
The first step of developing an AI-based model is defining the input/output
variables of the system which is to be modeled (Figure 1). Afterward,
according to the experimental data or the knowledge of the governing
phenomena, the model is developed. The parameters that characterize the
AI-based model like the number of fuzzy sets (when using fuzzy logic), the
number and the transfer functions of hidden layers (when using the ANN
method) depend on the complexity and nonlinearity of the system and the
types of variables affecting the process.

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 Figure 1

2.6 Application of AI in optimization of chemical processes

➢ Chemical process optimization has its origins in linear programming at the
beginning of the 1960s. This problem is finding the best solution from a
variety of efficient alternatives of design or operating variables in order to
minimize or maximize a desired objective function. In a general way, the
objective function can be the minimization of the operating costs and the
undesired material production or the maximization of energy efficiency, the
yields and operation productivity, the profitability, safety and the reliability
of the plant.
➢ Most chemical processes are nonlinear and complex, so there are many
solutions (in some cases becoming endless) in the optimization problems.
Such problems are often too complex to be solved through gradient-based
optimization approaches. Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) like GA, harmony
search, particle swarm optimization and so on categorized in the AI-based
method that is a generic population-based metaheuristic optimization
algorithm are capable of efficiently finding an optimal solution in complex
problems, such as optimization of chemical processes.

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3 conclusion
AI techniques provide tools to tackle complex problems. Challenging and useful
applications of AI techniques have been introduced in the chemical engineering
processes. Some illustrative case studies are investigated in fields of process
modeling, optimization, process control and fault detection and diagnosis waste
management. From the description of the various applications, the ability of AI
techniques has been revealed in a wide range of fields in chemical processes. There
are many applications, as noted, that are ready to yield quick successes in this new
data science phase of AI. However, the really interesting and intellectually
challenging problems lie in developing such conceptual frameworks as hybrid
models, mechanism-based causal explanations, domain-specific knowledge
discovery engines, and analytical theories of emergence. This is a long,
adventurous, and intellectually exciting journey, one that we have only barely
begun. The progress will revolutionize all aspects of chemical engineering.

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Reference:
1 Reaserch paper on the application of AI on chemical engineering from Institute

of Petroleum Industry (RIPI), by Tehran, Iran Zeinab Hajjar*, Shokoufe Tayyebi

and Mohammad Hosein Eghbal Ahmadi

2 ontech authors published peper on application of AI on chemical engineering

3 Emerj Artificial Intelligence Research

4 keymark reaserch by Arie Zilberman

5 Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, National Taipei

University of Technology, paper work on foalt detection and diagnosis in

cheemical engineeering with the help of AI

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