PERFORMANCE OF A BIOMASS INTEGRATED GASIFICATION COMBINED CYCLE CHP PLANT SUPPLYING HEAT TO A DISTRICT HEATING NETWORK

摘要

This paper examines a Biomass Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (BIGCC) CHP plant using atmospheric air-blown gasification with wet cold gas clean-up and flue gas drying of the biomass feed stream. The plant provides heat and power to a medium sized municipality. The paper presents simulated performance results obtained using GateCycle software, and also presents results for the associated economy and CO{sub}2 emissions of the district heating system. The computed production costs of the cogenerated electricity are uncompetitively high, given current conditions in Sweden. In order to become competitive, international consensus must be reached on the level of economic advantage to be attributed to the "green" electric power produced by such a plant. However, likely price incentives for "green" power will probably be insufficient for BIGCC-CHP plants to become economically attractive. Therefore further effort is needed to improve the technology, reduce the investment costs, and identify options for longer annual operating times than those usually adopted for CHP plants coupled to district heating plants.