Optimization of process parameters for preparation of coal water slurry using ant colony optimization and hydrodynamic simulation

The Ant Colony Optimization algorithm is one of the leading optimization algorithms for nondeterministic polynomial hard problems. The aim of the present work is to find the maximum power of the agitator and selection of the motor power load for agitation equipment by assuming 80% of the maximum power of the agitator for preparation of coal water slurry. The parameters considered for optimization are the particle diameter of solids, jacketed vessel diameter and height, and density of the slurry. They affect the mass ratio and viscosity of the slurry. Sensitivity analysis was conducted with various combinations of ants' parameters to enhance the result. From the optimization result, the power of the propeller, paddle, and rushton impellers is 13.58 Watts, 54.34 Watts, and 108.67 Watts. The power of the rushton impeller compared with the that of propeller and paddle is around 87.5% and 49%. VisiMix software is used to predict the turbulent shear near the impeller with optimized parameters obtained from ACO. The turbulent shear stress of the rushton impeller of 18.9 N/mm(2) is high when compared with the other impellers. The developed algorithm has been justified with standard formulation and found to be satisfactory for implementing maximum power in agitation for uniform suspension to improve heat transfer.