Stochastic Simulation of Pulverized Coal (PC) Processes

An increasing population and electricity demand in the U.S. require capacity expansion of power systems. The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), has invested considerable efforts on research and development to improve the design and simulation of these power plants. Incorporation of novel process synthesis techniques and realistic simulation methodologies yield optimal flowsheet configurations and accurate estimation of their performance parameters. To provide a better estimation of such performance indicators, simulation models should predict the process behavior based on not only deterministic values of well-known input parameters but also uncertain variables associated with simulation assumptions. In this work, the stochastic simulation of a load-following pulverized coal (PC) power plant takes into account the variation of three input variables, namely, atmospheric air temperature, atmospheric air humidity, and generation load. These uncertain variables are c...