Increasing Awareness Through the Development of a Web-based Education Tool to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Coal Power Plants   Maria Aranguren, Andres Tapia, Brittany Schier, David Olazaba, Jorge Vazquez, James Case Mentors: Drs. Krystel Castillo and Marcio Giacomoni Texas Sustainable Energy Research Institute, University of Texas at San Antonio One UTSA Circle, AET 2.305, San Antonio, TX, 78249, United States E-mail: maria.finol@utsa.edu Abstract A third of American electricity comes from coal power plants, which increases green house gas (GHG) emissions[1]. Our project aims to reduce emissions from a coal power plant while maintaining existing infrastructure and stimulating local economic growth by co-firing coal with biomass. The optimal biomass logistics network is designed to ensure that co-firing biomass becomes a sustainable and competitive alternative. We built a web-based decision support tool to materialize the developed model, data and algorithms. 1. Objectives • Quantify biomass crop yields and irrigation needs (Fig. 1-3) • Develop an optimization model for the production/transportation of biomass used in green energy generation (Fig. 6) • Design and implement a web-based platform to increase awareness about GHG emissions and assist in the deign and planning of biomass co-firing operations. 2. Climate Change Scenarios • A2 scenario represents a pessimistic future assuming pollution increase, halted economic growth, little technology progress, increase in CO2 levels and temperature (Fig. 3,4) • B2 scenario corresponds to a moderate increase in CO2 and a smaller temperature increase (Fig. 3,5) 3. Conclusions • An average of 90% CO2 reduction. • The social cost of net emissions ($79.3M) is greater than the cost of co-firing 20% switchgrass ($52.7M) (Fig. 7) • A 20% co-firing rate would save six lives. 4. Acknowledgement Financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture/NIFA(2015-38422-24064) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (SU836794) is gratefully acknowledged. [1] Pankaj; Alok Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). 2017. Legend (lbs/acre/yr) 1700-1870 1871-2380 2381-2805 2806-3230 3231-5700 Fig. 6 Hub-and-spoke Network Arcs T1 Depots (D) Land Parcels (P) Arcs T2 Power Plants (C) Arcs T3 Fig. 1 SSURGO Soil Data Fig. 2 Watershed A2:2050 A2:2080 B2:2050 B2:2080 Total Cost $52,717,593 Social Savings due to CO2 Reduction $79,314,165 Parcels Used 1,068 Net emission Reduction 1,829,201 Mg Average Yield/Hectare 9.61 Mg Fig. 3 Climate Change Scenarios Fig. 7 20% Co-firing Current Climate Fig. 4 20% A2 2050 Fig. 5 20% B2 2050 Proceedings of the 2018 ASEE Gulf-Southwest Section Annual Conference The University of Texas at Austin April 4-6, 2018