Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems

Increasing environmental legislation and regulation require companies to be capable of monitoring and controlling an ever growing list of emissions more stringently.

Work undertaken within Corus is aimed at developing and driving forward the use of Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems (“AI/EX Systems”) for environmental process control.

AI/EX systems use information about a process to develop ‘rules’ in the form of mathematical and heuristic statements.

These rules form the system’s ‘knowledge base’, which can then be used to monitor pollution control processes, identify and diagnose abnormal operating conditions, and ultimately provide supervisory control of emissions and general plant functions.
 
Corus have the expertise and experience to design and manufacture AI/EX systems for a variety of different processes and applications. By applying this knowledge, Corus Consulting can offer the following services :-

Specification, development and installation of PC-based data monitoring and SCADA systems for a variety of processes, specialising in wastewater treatment and primary steelmaking;

Specification, development and installation of AI/EX systems for automated control of ‘critical’ process parameters and optimisation of overall process performance;

Development of internet-based ‘training’ and ‘best practice’ documents, based on the complexity and content of the process knowledge base; 

Upgrading and redevelopment of previously installed AI/EX systems where the processes in question may have been changed or redesigned;

Comprehensive advice relating to the design and development of AI/EX systems for environmental process control.

The success of AI/EX systems is continuously being demonstrated through the growing portfolio of applications. The Benefits of using AI/EX Systems are:

• Significant improvements to process environmental performance
• Improved treatment of waste, leading to compliance with consent limits set by regulatory authorities
• Improved process and environmental sustainability
• Financial savings from potential reductions in raw materials energy, maintenance and manpower requirements
• The provision of a method for managing and maintaining expertise and knowledge in specific process areas
• Development of a management tool for the continuous process optimisation, resulting in improvements to environmental control performance