UW’s Zhai Develops Upgrade to Fossil Fuel Power Plant Software Tool

The University of Wyoming has released the Integrated Environmental Control Model (IECM) Version 13, a major upgrade to the internationally utilized software tool for clean electricity generation analysis.

Led by Haibo Zhai, a UW professor of environmental engineering and the Roy and Caryl Cline Distinguished Chair in Engineering, the IECM is a widely respected computer model for the preliminary design and comprehensive analysis of fossil fuel power plants that incorporate carbon capture and storage (CCS).

The tool is essential for engineers, researchers, technology developers and policy analysts who systematically analyze the cost and performance of various technology and emission control designs.

“The IECM is a simulation model for the rapid, preliminary design and analysis of performance, emissions, costs and uncertainties for a wide range of fossil fuel power plants and environmental control options, including CCS,” Zhai says. “A key upgrade now allows for assessing deep carbon capture up to 99 percent at both coal- and natural gas-fired plants using integrated performance and cost models of amine-based technology.”

Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, the software tool originally was developed at Carnegie Mellon University and was officially transferred to UW in 2022 under Zhai’s direction. In November 2024, his research group released IECM Version 12 that included a biomass database and a life-cycle emissions assessment module. Since its transfer, the IECM has been used worldwide, proving its continued relevance for applications ranging from process design and techno-economic analysis to policy analysis and teaching.

From its first public release, the IECM has been applied by more than 9,000 users in over 100 countries. Since being housed at UW in 2022, it has been used by people from 55 countries, highlighting its vital role in global energy research and development, as well as energy education and workforce development.

The new deep carbon capture module reinforces the IECM’s mission to provide quick, reliable results for a wide variety of clean technology options.

“I am immensely proud of the collective effort put forth by our exceptional team,” Zhai says. “This enhanced tool now provides unparalleled capacities in technology evaluation and risk analysis, directly enabling us to accelerate clean energy research and development and inform critical strategic planning decisions across the energy sector.”

Additional contributors to this upgrade include Karen Kietzke, IECM principal research programmer; Asad Ullah and Zitao Wu, postdoctoral researchers in the Zhai research group; and Wanying Wu, a Ph.D. student in environmental engineering.

More information about the IECM is available at www.uwyo.edu/iecm/.