Current Research and Technology Areas

The Energy Research Center (ERC) is a multidisciplinary research group that involves professional staff, faculty and students at Lehigh University.

The ERC was founded in 1978 to provide solutions to the Nation’s energy problems, with an emphasis on electric power generation and clean coal research.

The ERC is committed to providing fundamental and applied research, and development, demonstration and commercialization of technologies for the efficient use of fossil energy sources, reducing pollutant emissions from power plants, increasing power plant availability, extending power plant life and reducing operational and maintenance costs.  The Center’s research is funded by the US DOE, the EPA, EPRI, electric power generation companies, OEM and service suppliers to the utility industry, as well as other energy companies.

Over the years the ERC has worked on innovative research programs and developed technological solutions that encompass the entire power generation plant, from the fuel supply, to the firing system, to the air pollution control devices train, to the back-end of the flue gas path, to the to the turbine cycle.

The diagram below shows different research areas at the ERC, including process optimization, advanced instrumentation and control, and materials research.