Alternative assessment of machine learning to polynomial regression in response surface methodology for predicting decolorization efficiency in textile wastewater treatment

This study investigated the potential of machine learning (ML) as a substitute for polynomial regression in conventional response surface methodology (RSM) for decolorizing textile wastewater via a UV/H2O2 process. While polynomial regression offers limited adaptability, ML models provide superior flexibility in capturing nonlinear responses but are prone to overfitting, particularly with constrained RSM datasets. In this study, we evaluated decision tree (DT), random forest (RF), multilayer perceptron (MLP), and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) models with respect to a quadratic regression model. Our observations indicated that the ML models achieved higher R2 values, demonstrating better adaptability. However, when provided with additional data, the polynomial regression displayed a moderate predictability, whereas MLP and XGBoost exhibited indications of overfitting, while DT and RF remained robust. Both ANalysis Of VAriance (ANOVA) and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analyses consistently emphasized the significance of operational factors (H2O2 concentration, reaction time, UV light intensity) in decolorization. The findings underscore the need for cautious validation when substituting ML models in RSM and highlight the complementary value of ML (particularly SHAP analysis) alongside conventional ANOVA for analyzing factor significance. This study offered significant insights into replacing polynomial regression with ML models in RSM. [Display omitted] •Polynomial regression in the response surface methodology (RSM) can be substituted with machine learning (ML) models.•The challenges in substituting ML within RSM can be mitigated by establishing an ML model.•Polynomial regression can be replaced by various ML model comparison and SHapley Additive exPlanations application.•Owing to the characteristic of ML models, limitations in presenting response surfaces or optimal conditions are likely.•Employing ML for RSM can yield superior predictive performance for wastewater decolorization.