Technical, Economic and Environmental Potential of Cofiring of Biomass and Waste in Natural Gas Fired Turbines and Combined Cycles.

摘要

Within this paper the technical, economic and environmental potential cofiring of biomass and waste in natural gas fired power plants is addressed. The aspects that have been evaluated are the availability, contractability and costs of biomass and waste for energy purposes, the thermal conversion concepts that can be used to cofire biomass and waste in natural gas fired turbines and combined cycles (CCs), the general economic and environmental potential of cofiring in natural gas fired turbines and CCs, the economic and environmental potential of cofiring fuel gas in the RoCa3 power plant of E.ON (supplier of electricity and heat at Rotterdam) and the government's financial incentives for energy investments. Indirect gasification with advanced fuel gas clean up has been identified as the most attractive thermochemical conversion technology but still requires a significant R&D time. It is concluded that although cofiring in natural gas fired turbines and CCs has the potential to fulfill a significant part of the main goal of the Dutch Renewable Energy Policy, CO2-reduction costs are relatively high compared with cofiring in coal based plants and the contribution to the future renewable energy based energy supply system in the Netherlands is limited due to the restricted amount of low calorfic gas that can be cofired in conventional gas turbines and CCs and their limited annual operating hours. By adjusting the turbine or CC this amount can be increased, however these adjustments involve significant investment costs and will make possible sole operation on natural gas less evident.