Cleaner production for continuous digester processes based on hybrid Pareto genetic algorithm.

Pulping production process produces a large amount of wastewater and pollutant emitted, which has become one of the main pollution sources in pulp and paper industry. To solve this problem, it is necessary to implement cleaner production by using modeling and optimization technology. This paper studies the modeling and multi-objective genetic algorithms for continuous digester process. First, model is established, in which environmental pollution and saving energy factors are considered. Then hybrid genetic algorithm based on Pareto stratum-nichecount is designed for finding near-Pareto or Pareto optimal solutions in the problem and a new genetic evaluation and selection mechanism is proposed. Finally using the real data from a pulp mill shows the results of computer simulation. Through comparing with the practical curve of digester, this method can reduce the pollutant effectively and increase the profit while keeping the pulp quality unchanged.