Blending scheduling based on particle swarm optimization algorithm

Blending is an important unit operation in process industry. Blending scheduling is nonlinear optimization problem with constraints. It is difficult to obtain optimum solution by other general optimization methods. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is developed for nonlinear optimization problems with both continuous and discrete variables. In order to obtain a global optimum solution quickly, PSO algorithm is applied to solve the problem of blending scheduling. The calculation results with an example of gasoline blending are satisfactory, which illustrates that the PSO algorithm is valid and effective for blending scheduling problem.