Optimization of Fischer–Tropsch microchannel reactor using computational fluid dynamics and enveloped Bayesian optimization

We propose computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-enveloped Bayesian optimization (EBO), a novel optimizer that integrates EBO with CFD to reduce the required CFD simulations by utilizing previous optimization data. The proposed optimizer was applied to determine the optimal catalyst packing ratio of the Fischer–Tropsch microchannel reactor that minimizes the maximum temperature and maximizes the productivity of long-chain hydrocarbons by utilizing the CFD model. The obtained results indicate that the number of iterations required to reach the optimal points is lower than that of BO, and the optimal result exhibits a 5% improvement from the initial condition. The optimizer was evaluated across various catalyst packing cases to assess its robustness. Nevertheless, the proposed optimizer was consistently able to reach optimal points that BO could not achieve. We anticipate that this optimizer can be widely applied to optimize the operating condition of a chemical reactor in the presence of previous optimization data.