Fast determination of oxides content in cement raw meal using NIR-spectroscopy and backward interval PLS with genetic algorithm.

Determining oxides content in cement raw meal with near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, associated with partial least square (PLS) regression, is fast and potential for cement industry to realize cement raw material proportioning control. However, it has hardly been studied. Backward interval PLS (biPLS) with genetic algorithm (GA-biPLS) were applied to select characteristic variables closely related to the concentration of oxide of interest to establish calibration model. The optimal GA-biPLS models showed that the determination coefficient (Rp2) and root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) were 0.8857 and 0.0994 for CaO, 0.8718 and 0.1044 for SiO2, 0.7417 and 0.0693 for Al2O3, 0.5404 and 0.0387 for Fe2O3, correspondingly. These results indicate that GA-biPLS can select less variables with better prediction performance by comparison with PLS and biPLS, the NIR spectroscopy combined with GA-biPLS algorithm is a fast, accurate and reliable alternative method for determination of oxides content in cement raw meal.