On the real - time emission control – case study application

The paper addresses the problem of real-time emission control in a given set of air pollution sources. The approach applied utilizes the optimal control technique for distributed parameter systems. A set of pointwise emission sources with a predefined location and emission characteristics is considered as the controlled object. The problem is formulated as on-line minimization of an environmental cost function, by the respective modification of emission level in the controlled sources, according to the changing meteorological conditions (e.g. wind direction and velocity). Dispersion of atmospheric pollution is governed by a multi-layer, dynamic model of SOx transport, which is the main forecasting tool used in the optimization algorithm. The objective function includes the environmental damage related to air quality as well as the cost of the controlling action. The environmental cost index depends on the current level of SOx concentration and on the sensitivity of the area to this type of air pollution. The adjoint variable, related to the main transport equation of the forecasting model, is applied to calculate the gradient of the objective function in the main optimization procedure. The test computations have been performed for a set of major power plants in the industrial region of Upper Silesia (Poland).