Energy Research Company (ERCo), spun off from research done at Lehigh Universitys Energy Research Center, conducts a wide variety of research for industrial energy and emissions related applications. ERCo has developed a system for on-line, real-time measurement of coal properties. The system includes artificial intelligence (AI) models to accurately predict the slagging propensity of coal and coal blends as they are fed into power plant boilers, and advisory software for heavy-slagging prevention. This allows plant engineers and boiler operators to take a number of actions to mitigate or possibly eliminate slagging problems, improving boiler efficiency, increasing unit power output, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving unit availability through decreased slagging-related boiler outages and reducing consumer electric rates. The firm provides custom LIBS engineering and consulting services for both laboratory and field applications. LIBS can also be used to measure the chemistry of online molten metals in real time.
