Data-driven multi-objective intelligent optimal control of municipal solid waste incineration process

The municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) process has become the primary technology for municipal solid waste (MSW) treatment worldwide due to its advantages of harmlessness, reduction, and resource recovery. However, the automatic combustion control (ACC) system developed in developed countries are often not effectively applicable to other countries, particularly China, due to regional differences in MSW composition. To achieve intelligent development of MSWI plants, it is crucial to develop intelligent optimal control technology tailored to national conditions to reduce comprehensive pollutant emission concentration (CPEC) and improve combustion efficiency (CE). This article proposes a data-driven multi-objective intelligent optimal control strategy. Firstly, based on the analysis of the whole process, the Tikhonov regularization-least regression decision tree (TR-LRDT) algorithm is used to establish a MSWI whole process model, incorporating serial controlled objects and parallel pollutant indicators, to support a multi-objective optimization model. Then, leveraging the ACC system and expert experience, a multi-input multi-output loop controller is established using the single neuron adaptive PID (SNA-PID) algorithm to achieve stable control of key controlled variables. Next, a mutation crossover strategy and termination condition are integrated with the multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm to solve the multi-objective optimization model, and domain expert rules are applied to determine the optimal setpoints for key controlled variables in the Pareto front, aiming to reduce CPEC and improve CE. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed intelligent optimal control strategy is validated using actual data. The experimental results demonstrate that this strategy not only maintains the stability of key controlled variables but also decreases CPEC by 1.82% and increases CE by 2.38%, laying a foundation for further research into intelligent optimization control of the MSWI process. Further, the software system based on the proposed strategy is developed and validated on a hardware-in-loop simulation platform.