A comparative study of the multi-objective optimization algorithms for coal-fired boilers

► NOx emissions and unburned carbon in fly ash of coal-fired boilers can be reduced simultaneously. ► Combining SVR and multi-objective algorithms can optimize combustion performances for boilers. ► OMOPSO algorithm is the best in terms of the accuracy and convergence rate. ► We propose OMOPSO and MOCell algorithms for online multi-object optimization of boilers.