(398b) Use of Cape-Open Standard in U.S.-U.K. Collaboration on Virtual Plant Simulation

Under the auspices of an US-UK Memorandum of Understanding and Implementing Agreement for fossil energy R&D, the US Department of Energy's (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and the UK Department of Trade and Industry are collaborating on virtual plant modeling and simulation technology for advanced power generation systems. The R&D collaboration is aimed at taking full advantage of the synergies between NETL's Advanced Process Engineering Co-Simulator (APECS) project and the UK's three-year Virtual Plant Demonstration Model (VPDM) project.

In this presentation we will highlight the use of the process-industry standard CAPE-OPEN (C-O) software interfaces for facilitating the plug-and-play interoperability of power plant equipment models between the APECS and VPDM software platforms. Special emphasis will be focused on the use of the C-O steady-state unit operation interfaces to integrate process simulation with a hierarchy of equipment models ranging from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models, custom equipment models, and reduced-order models (ROMs) based on CFD results. Virtual plant simulations based on C-O compliant process/CFD co-simulations will accelerate the design of next-generation plants to operate with unprecedented efficiency and near-zero emissions, while operating profitably amid cost fluctuations for raw materials, finished products, and energy.