Differential Evolution-based Optimization of Corn Stalks Black Liquor Decolorization with Active Carbon Adsorption and TiO2 Promoted Photochemical Degradation

In this work, the active carbon adsorption and TiO 2 promoted photochemical degradation of black liquor decolorization were studied through experimental analysis (planned using Design of Experiments), modelling and optimization (with Response Surface Method and Differential Evolution). The aim is to highlight the importance of optimization methods for increasing process efficiency. For active carbon adsorption the considered process parameters were: quantity of active carbon, dilution, and contact time; for TiO 2 promoted photochemical degradation the process parameters were: TiO 2 concentration, UV path length and irradiation time. The determined models had an R squared of 93.82% for active carbon adsorption and of 92.82% for TiO2 based degradation. In the optimization phase, for active carbon, an improvement from 81.27–100% and for TiO2-based degradation from 36.63–46.83% was obtained. These results show that the experiments and the subsequent standard RSM optimization data can be further improved, leading to better performance.