INVESTIGATION OF THE PRODUCTION OF SUBST ITUTE NATURAL GAS IN GREECE FROM LOCAL BIOMASS FEEDSTOCK BY MEANS OF THE BIOHPR

摘要

Greece is a country with massive gas imports, increased demand in natural gas and with highlyuntapped solid biomass feedstock. The decentralized generation of Substitute Natural Gas through gasification, withthe BioHPR technology, of straw and prunings, collected in rural areas close to the gas grid and the consumption ofthe biofuel in the urban areas, seems one of the most promising solutions in order to secure the national energysystem and cover seamlessly the gas demand. Pelletizing of these sources in inevitable so as the gasification processcan run trouble free. In this study and after assessing the potential of the aforementioned feedstock from properbiomass database, two scenarios regarding the pelletizing process were taken into consideration in order to select themost appropriate in each prefecture: mobile machines that convert exclusively dry biomass, such as straw, to pelletsand plants that can transform both type of feedstock. In total 42 pelletizing machines or plants and 227 small scalegasification units of 1.3MW_(th) fuel input can be deployed across the 21 prefectures that are close to the gas grid.Approximately 1,36 million MWh of SNG can be annually produced which represents 3.8% of Greece annual gasimports. Finally a techno-economic evaluation has been performed in order to identify the financial viability ofgasification plant investments under the Greek legislation.