Cost estimate of multi-pollutant abatement from the power sector in the Yangtze River Delta region of China

Coal-fired power plants in China have emitted multiple pollutants including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and fine particulates, contributing to serious environmental impairments and human health issues. To meet ambient air quality standards, the installation of effective pollution control technologies are required and consequently, the cost of installing or retrofitting control technologies is an important economic and political concern. A multi-pollutant control cost model, CoST CE, is developed to calculate the cost of multi-pollutant control strategies in the Yangtze River Delta region (YRD) of China, adopting an LP algorithm to optimize the sorting of control technology costs and quickly obtain a solution. The output shows that total costs will increase along with emission abatement. Meanwhile, the slope becomes steeper as greater emission reductions are pursued, due to the need to install highly effective, but expensive, technologies like SCR and FF. Moreover, it is evident that the cost curve shapes, maximum abatement potential and total cost for the three provinces in the YRD region are quite different due to differences in power plant type and technologies, current emission levels and existing pollution controls. The results from this study can aid policy makers to develop cost-effective control strategies for the power sector.