Heuristic Approaches for Experimentation in Catalyst Optimization

In this paper we give an overview of algorithms developed to aid catalyst optimization at the Mexican Institute of Petroleum. We present a methodology that uses an evolutionary approach and ideas from tabu search and simulated annealing to guide the search for optimum catalytic materials based on previous experimentation. We give results on butane isomerization in ZrO2/Al2O3, and compare the approach with other theoretical models. The method leads to higher efficiency and reduction in the number of tested materials