Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the application of radial basis function (RBF) and multilayer perceptron (MLP) artificial neural networks for modeling hydrogen production by co-gasification of rubber and plastic wastes. Both the RBF and MLP neural networks were configured by determining the best-hidden neurons that could offer optimized performance. Based on the best-hidden neurons, a model architecture of 4-16-1, 4-20-1, 4-17-1, and 4-3-1 was obtained for RBF (with standard activation function), RBF (with ordinary activation function), one-layer MLP, and two-layer MLP, respectively, indicating the number of input nodes, the hidden neurons, and the output nodes. The predicted hydrogen production from the co-gasification closely agrees with the observed values. The 1-layer MLP with R-2 of .990 displayed the best performance with all the input parameters having a significant influence on 9 the model output. The neural network algorithm obtained in this study could be implemented in the eventuality of making a vital decision in the process operation of the co-gasification process for hydrogen production.