A Model of Emission Trading for Minimizing the Cost of Air Pollution Control from Belgian Power Plants

In Belgium recent national and community legislation regulates emission levels of "acid pollutants" (SO2, NOx) and apply to large combustion facilities whose pollutants are transported over large distances. Complying with these legislations requires costly emission control equipment. In order to minimize the costs of clean-up operations, this paper analyses the potentialities of an emission trading programme by means of a linear programming model. Six retrofit power plants have been chosen to test the model. As the results suggest, substantial credits are obtained for either SO2 or NOx emissions reduction.