The Prediction of Cu(II) Adsorption Capacity of Modified Pomelo Peels Using the PSO-ANN Model

It is very well known that traditional artificial neural networks (ANNs) are prone to falling into local extremes when optimizing model parameters. Herein, to enhance the prediction performance of Cu(II) adsorption capacity, a particle swarm optimized artificial neural network (PSO-ANN) model was developed. Prior to predicting the Cu(II) adsorption capacity of modified pomelo peels (MPP), experimental data collected by our research group were used to build a consistent database. Then, a PSO-ANN model was established to enhance the model performance by optimizing the ANN’s weights and biases. Finally, the performances of the developed ANN and PSO-ANN models were deeply evaluated. The results of this investigation revealed that the proposed hybrid method did increase both the generalization ability and the accuracy of the predicted data of the Cu(II) adsorption capacity of MPPs when compared to the conventional ANN model. This PSO-ANN model thus offers an alternative methodology for optimizing the adsorption capacity prediction of heavy metals using agricultural waste biosorbents.