Here, we utilized GA to explore multi-element catalysts, consisting of up to 14 elements including Mg, Al, Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Y, Zr, Nb, Mo, Ag, La, and Hf, simultaneously supported on SBA-15. The selection of these elements was primarily based on their proven track record in ETB from literature. Each catalyst or each chromosome was represented by the total loading amount and the percentages of the individual elements within it. The total loading amount was restricted within 3.0 mmol per gram support. GA was initialized with a population of 20 catalysts whose genotype values were randomly determined. The catalysts were experimentally prepared and evaluated based on the methods described above. The fitness score was assigned to each catalyst using Eqs. 4 and 5, 𝑓 , = 𝑒 45 % Eq. ( ),