Abstract: Byproduct gas is important in iron & steel industry， so a maximum benefit objective model was built based on the analysis of characteristic and relationships of important byproduct equipments. Meanwhile， considering the deficiencies and shortcomings of genetic algorithm， which may lead to the low efficiency of the optimization and local search ability， the mutation process with the movement process of ant colony algorithm was replaced to solve the calculation of the model. The proposed model was flexible in the local searching styles， and easy to combine with other algorithms， Finally， the algorithm was successfully tested by means of PC simulations. By the achieved method， the optimization dispatching model of an iron & steel industry was solved， leading to a better benefit.

Key words: byproduct gas, mathematical model, ant colony algorithm, local searching, generic algorithm