Infrequent adverse event prediction in low carbon energy production using machine learning

Machine Learning is one of the fastest growing fields in academia. Many industries are aiming to incorporate machine learning tools into their day to day operation. However the keystone of doing so, is recognising when you have a problem which can be solved using machine learning. Adverse event prediction is one such problem. There are a wide range of methods for the production of sustainable energy. In many of which adverse events can occur which can impede energy production and even damage equipment. The two examples of adverse event prediction in sustainable energy production we examine in this paper are foam formation in anaerobic digestion and condenser fouling in steam turbines as used in nuclear power stations. In this paper we will propose a framework for: formalising a classification problem based around adverse event prediction, building predictive maintenance models capable of predicting these events before they occur and testing the reliability of these models.