A multi-layer feed forward neural network model for accurate prediction of flue gas sulfuric acid dew points in process industries

Acidic combustion gases can cause rapid corrosion when they condense on pollution control or energy recovery equipments. Since the potential of sulfuric acid condensation from flue gases is of considerable economic significance, a multi-layer feed forward artificial neural network has been presented for accurate prediction of the flue gas sulfuric acid dew points to mitigate the corrosion problems in process and power plants. According to the network’s training, validation and testing results, a three layer neural network with four neurons in the hidden layer is selected as the best architecture for accurate prediction of sulfuric acid dew points. The presented model is very accurate and reliable for predicting the acid dew points over wide ranges of sulfur trioxide and water vapor concentrations. Comparison of the suggested neural network model with the most important existing correlations shows that the proposed neuromorphic model outperforms the other alternatives both in accuracy and generality. The predicted flue gas sulfuric acid dew points are in excellent agreement with experimental data suggesting the accuracy of the proposed neural network model for predicting the sulfuric acid condensation in stacks, pollution control devices, economizers and flue gas recovery systems in process industries.