Development of computational methods for estimation of current efficiency and cell voltage in a Chlor-alkali membrane cell

This work presents proposing two artificial intelligence methods including Least squares support vector machine (LSSVM) and Adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) for the prediction of caustic current efficiency (CCE) and cell voltage as a function of pH, current density, brine concentration, electrolyte velocity, operating temperature, and run time. The predictions of LSSVM and ANFIS models were evaluated by the experimental values of this process graphically and statistically. The overall R-squared values of LSSVM and ANFIS for prediction of CCE were 0.999 and 0.972, respectively. On the other hand, these values for cell voltage prediction were 1 and 0.998. According to the CCE and cell voltage predictions results, LSSVM algorithm has great performance in prediction of chlor-alkali membrane cell processes. Furthermore, artificial intelligence methods can have wide use in electrolytic processes to enhance power consumption.