Modeling and optimization of polymer enhanced ultrafiltration using hybrid neural-genetic algorithm based evolutionary approach

A stochastic genetic algorithm (GA) based strategy along with artificial neural network (ANN) was applied to optimize the retention of reactive red 120 (RR 120) dye from its aqueous solutions by way of polymer (polyethyleneimine (PEI)) enhanced ultrafiltration (PEUF). The optimal feed forward back propagation ANN (4-10-1) model network, trained initially through Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithm, was suitably manoeuvred by the GA approach to predict the membrane performance index (PFI) response, evaluated as the product of dye rejection and permeation flux, for a randomly generated population of chromosomes. Each chromosome was constituted by four principal genes, namely, cross-flow rate, transmembrane pressure, polymer to dye ratio, and pH. The local exploitation capacity of the canonical GA was enhanced further by combining hill-climbing (HC) local search with the optimization levels of standard GA. The near-optimal and economically feasible factor levels were predicted by the hybrid ANN-GA-HC strategy, keeping PFI maximization and the constrained PEUF process dynamics in perspective; the optimal process factor settings experimentally yielded a pragmatic PFI of 143.8 L/m(2) h, corresponding to high (99.9%) dye rejection, and a satisfactory permeation flux (144 L/m(2) h). (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.