ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF CONVENTIONAL AND ADVANCED TECHNOLOGICAL ROUTES FOR ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THROUGH BIOMASS GASIFICATION

摘要

This paper presents an assessment of the techno- economic performance of thermal processes to generate electricity from biomass by gasification. Thebiomass considered is wood, rice hulls, and bagasse to be used in fixed and fluidized bed gasifiers. Gasification agents considered to be used in the gasification processare air, air + steam and the mixture steam + oxygen, and the objective of this paper is to evaluate the cost of electricity in each case. The gasification system is coupledwith different prime movers such as Internal Combustion Engines, Stirling engines, Gas Turbines and Fuel Cells. Net generating capacities of 100 – 3.000 kW areconsidered. The results are present in function of Internal Return Rate (IRR), specific generation cost (R$/MW) and specific investment cost (R$/kWh_(instaled)). Using theseindicators we aim to show which are the technology with the higher economic viability. This paper presents a sensitivity analysis with relation to the price of the biomass,the cost of investment, the electricity commercialization tariff, and the cost of O&M. The results are presented in graphs indicating the behavior of this parameter infunction of the variation of the costs reducing and increasing in up to 50% of the calculated value. In accordance with the calculations the prime movers with highereconomic viability are the Internal Combustion Engine and Gas Turbine if compared with Stirling Engine and the Fuel Cells.