A modelling and optimization system for fluidized bed power plants

The energy production has nowadays several challenges. For example, new environmental legislation sets needs to reduce process emissions. However, emission reduction may also be a part of business in power plants arose from emission trading schemes, like The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme. In this paper we demonstrate an optimization and modelling system for fluidized bed power plants, which can be used in this new service business. The software contains four parts: (1) pre-processing, (2) variable selection and process lags, (3) modelling and (4) post-processing. In the post-processing part there are three applications, i.e. process state determination, process optimization and emission reporting. The modelling part is based on the self-organizing maps (SOM) with retrain properties. The software is programmed into standalone software built up in the Matlab platform. The results show that the software can offer an efficient tool to process optimization and also to a new type of service business.