An AI-Assisted Thermodynamic Equilibrium Simulator: A Case Study on Steam Methane Reforming in Isothermal and Adiabatic Reactors

This study presents TeS v.3, a thermodynamic equilibrium simulator integrated with an artificial intelligence agent (AI), ThermoAgent, to enhance the analysis of complex chemical systems. Developed in Python, the simulator employs Gibbs energy minimization for isothermal reactors and entropy maximization for adiabatic reactors. ThermoAgent leverages the LangChain framework to interpret natural language commands, autonomously execute simulations, and query a scientific knowledge base through a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) approach. The validation of TeS v.3 demonstrated high accuracy, with coefficients of determination (R2 > 0.95) compared to reference simulation data and strong correlation (R2 > 0.88) with experimental data from the steam methane reforming (SMR) process. The SMR analysis correctly distinguished the high conversions in isothermal reactors from the limited conversions in adiabatic reactors, due to the reaction temperature drop. ThermoAgent successfully executed simulations and provided justified analyses, combining generated data with information from reference publications. The successful integration of the simulator with the AI agent represents a significant advancement, offering a powerful tool that accurately calculates equilibrium and accelerates knowledge extraction through intuitive interaction.