Bioenergy at present makes a significant contribution to a reduction in CO2 emissions and, at the same time, is reducing dependency on constantly rising prices for fossil fuels. In order to keep the energy costs for operating the plant as low as possible and, at the same time, to increase the quantity and improve the quality of biogas, the GECO►C research team is developing jointly with PlanET Biogastechnik GmbH an intelligent, application orientated optimisation tool for the everyday management of a plant.
Using a simulation model, the substrate feed can be improved and the stability of the process optimised. The model is operated in parallel with the plant and supports the operator at all times. For the actual optimisation innovative methods from the field of computational intelligence are used which model themselves on natural processes for their basic principles. These include, among other things, genetic algorithms which replicate evolutionary processes, and so-called “particle swarm optimisation”, which is modelled on the internal communications behaviour of flocks of birds. Such processes are particularly suited to optimising complex events where many parameters have to be taken into account.