DECADE : a hybrid expert system for catalyst selection.

Abstract: "DECADE (Design Expert for CAtalyst DEvelopment) is a prototype expert system for catalyst selection. The objective of DECADE's development has been to investigate and evalutate the potential of expert system's technology applied to the solution of chemical engineering problems. DECADE's particular application problem consists of prescribing a set of catalytic materials that have an acceptable probability of being appropriate for a target reaction. The class of reactions for which DECADE has specific knowledge is carbon monoxide hydrogenation. Given DECADE's architecture and implementation, it can illustrate the integration of different paradigms along some of the several dimensions of expert systems applications: knowledge representation, problem-solving methods, and levels of knowledge abstraction. All these properties are achieved through the use of different languages (FranzLisp, OPS5, SRL1.5) brought together in a blackboard model architecture."