Under terms of a contract announced last month, a VR-based training
system provided by Invensys Operations Management (IOM), Plano, Texas,
will be part of a state-of-the-art DOE research and training center for
zero-emission integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power
plants with carbon capture.

The center, to be operated by the DOE’s National Energy Technology
Laboratory (NETL), in Morgantown, W.Va., will integrate a conventional,
high-fidelity IOM operator training simulator (OTS) with the VR-based
system, known as EyeSim, to provide an immersive training simulator
(ITS) experience for users. Wearing stereoscopic headsets, users will
enter an immersive VR environment in which they can move throughout a
generic IGCC virtual plant, while using a game pad to interact with
equipment objects such as gasifiers, combustors, heat exchangers,
valves, pumps, and turbines.

World class

“We envision this combined OTS/ITS system as being a world-class tool
that we can make available for research and educational purposes to our
University partners,” says Stephen Zitney, Ph.D., director,
collaboratory for process & dynamic systems research, at NETL. The
DOE is working with regional universities including Carnegie Mellon,
Penn State, the University of Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech and West
Virginia University on the initiative, along with various commercial
partners.

The ITS should prove attractive to students, who will be using the same
game controllers they’ve been playing with for years, Zitney observes.
“I think it will help get young engineers excited about focusing on
energy-related applications.”

The immersive technology should also provide an effective vehicle for
promoting clean-coal energy plants to a wide range of stakeholders,
Zitney adds. “It’s a good, collaborative environment that is easier for
people to relate to than just looking at a plant flowsheet layout in 2D
on a screen.”

The center is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2010.

Related Feature - Operator Training Simulators to the Rescue
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