Development and Application of the Integrated Environmental Control Model

Over the past two decades, environmental regulations have transformed the design of new coalfired power plants. Requirements for the control of air pollutants, water pollutants and solid wastes have added considerably to plant complexity, while spurring the development of new, more innovative technology for the removal of pollutants before, during and after combustion. The availability of a larger number of options for meeting emission reduction requirements also has increased the need for systematic methods of evaluating and comparing process alternatives. In particular, there is now an increased need to assess the cost and performance of alternative power plant designs involving both conventional and advanced technologies. This paper describes an analytical model developed for the U.S. Department of Energy's Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center (DOE/PETC) under Contract No. DE-AC22-87PC79864. The model quantifies the performance and cost of power plant designs that involve user-specified combinations of pre-combustion, combustion, and post-combustion methods of environmental control. A unique feature of the Integrated Environmental Control Model (IECM) is the ability to characterize uncertainty in probabilistic terms, in contrast to conventional deterministic analysis. This capability offers special advantages in comparing advanced technologies at an early stage of . development with conventional systems where uncertainties are smaller. This paper reviews the current status of model development and presents an illustrative example of its use. Plans for further model development also are summarized