Comparative study of deterministic and stochastic optimization algorithms applied to the absorption of CO ₂ by alkanolamine solution

Abstract A model based on simulated annealing approach is used with e-UNIQUAC model as well as two other algorithms to study the absorption of carbon dioxide by monoethanolamine solutions. In this work, we propose to compare the performance (through the knowledge of RMSD values) of two stochastic methods, namely the GA (genetic algorithm) and SA (simulated annealing) methods and a deterministic method that is the simplex method. These methods were applied to the absorption of carbon dioxide by an alkanolamine solution using a chemical equilibrium model and a thermodynamic equilibrium model. The latter is based on the use of the modified-UNIQUAC (UNIQUAC-electrolyte) model instead of e-NRTL model for the liquid phase and a fugacity model for the vapor phase. The chemical equilibrium in this work represents the absorption of CO 2 by monoethanolamine solution at different temperatures. Solving the coupled system of material and charge balances gives us the carbon dioxide pressure while taking into account the non-ideality of the system. The three-optimization methods show good agreement with the experimental data with a better performance of the simulated annealing method..