THERMO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS FOR THE

OPTIMAL CONCEPTUAL DESIGN

OF BIOMASS GASIFICATION ENERGY
CONVERSION SYSTEMS

ASTRID YULIANA RAMIREZ

ADRIANA PALENCIA SALGAR
INTRODUCTION

GAS CONTAMINANTS AND GAS

CLEANING

ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION

THERMO-ECONOMIC
OPTIMISATION
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

IMPROVING BIOMASS GASIFIERS Steam injected gas

TECHNOLOGIES turbine

Solid oxide fuel cells

IGCC
Integrated gasification
combined cycle

Wood - Tar (Quantity)

GASIFICATION - Main gas species

+ CONDITIONS
- Hydrocarbons
O2+N2
  Tar formation - Soot
O2 - H2, CO, CO2 , and N2
Electricity generation - Trace species
Steam
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

To minimize the contaminant formation

DESIGN PROBLEM
To obtain a high net conversion efficiency

Identifying

Gasification conditions Gas cleaning Energy conversion

Technologies Technologies

Tar deposits are an economical bottleneck to gasification

(Equipment shutdowns)

Review of gas cleaning

Gasification process
technologies
Optimization
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

TAR
Organic contaminants with a molecular weigh larger than benzene
(78kg/kmol)

Classification of biomass tar according to formation temperature

Category Primary Secondary Tertiary
Range (°C) 400-600 600-800 800-1000
Species Acids, phenols, Phenols, Polyaromatic
ketones, guaialcols, heterocyclic heters, hidrocarbons
furans, fulfurals. monoaromatic
hydrocarbons

Shorter reaction times Gas phase reactions that becomes

progressively aromatics
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

TECHNOLOGY
Fixed bed co-current gasifiers and circulating fluidized beds
produce less tar than fixed bed counter courrent gasifiers

PHISICAL TAR CHEMICAL TAR

REMOVAL PROCESS TAR CONTROL CONVERSION PROCESS

Thermal conversion processes involve

• Scrubbers rainsing the gas temperatarute above
1000°C (PAH , SOOT )
• Wet electrostatics
precipitators
Catalytic conversion can be operated
a lower T elimination the heating
• Packed bed filtering (SOOT )and material requeriments.

• Bag filters
Metal based Mineral based
Uneconomic due to
H2S desactivation
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

OTHER GAS CONTAMINANTS

Nitrogen and sulphur gases

• Precursor to acid rain and photochemical smog
• The low temperature and oxygen deficient favor NH3 which
act as NOx precursor.
• Thermal NOx can be form simply from the addion of N2 or O2 (5-
15)%.

NOx control can be dome through fume recirculation and post

combustion, and also trough the catalytic or thermal conversion of NH 3
and NOx to N2 y H2O.
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

PARTICULATE (FLY ASH AND DUST PARTICLES)

Particulates are organic and inorganic fine dust particles entrained out of
the gasifier by products and cause corrosion and clogging.

Pariculates can be removed by phisical process like:

Cyclones wet scrubbers

Bag filters or dry
Allow recycling large electrostatic filters
particulates and bed It can be operate close
material to the gasifier. to gasifier temperature.
It is ineffective at Removes fine particles.
removing particles of
sub-microns.

Due to the importance or ther alkali content, certain components of biomass

ashes are dense, sticky and reactive. Alkalis combine with chlorine to form
Alkali chlorides. AC induce corrosion.
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

Due to feedstock collecion and transportation costs, electricity

production from biomass is typically limited to less than 100MW.

Parameter 1 2 3 4 5
Feedstock Wood Bio (misc) Wood Wood Coal
Oxidant Steam Air Air Air Oxygen
Power 2 6 8 32 800
ouput (MW)
Efficiency 25 33 29 40 43
(%)
Gasifier Atmospheric Pressurised Atmospheric Atmospheric Pressurised

Gas Cold Hot Cold Cold Cold

cleaning
CYCLE ICE GT-CC GT-CC GT-CC GT-CC
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

Cycles of energy production with biomass gasification as a

part of the process

BOILERS AND RANKIE

TOPPING CYCLES
CYCLES
Gas turbines Internal combustion
Gasification combined cycle engines (More
(CC) with heat recuperation efficient that gas
by steam generation appears turbines)
advantageous for electricity
production.
Internal combustion engine combined
cycle can realistically be considered for
biomass based power generation.
Increse the efficient of the
biomass process (15-25%)
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

The gasification model was developed with air gasification data for a
pilot circultation fluidised bed reactor operated at atmospheric
pressure

MODELLING
1. Light gas species, total tar and char concentration were verified by mass
balance reconciliation

2. The distribution of a subset of tar species was determined from the

quantity and elemental composition of the total tars by non-
stoichiometric equilibrium calculations

3. A complete stoichiometry was written for the reaction system, and fitted
to the calculated product distribution by letting reaction equilibrium
temperatures vary from the measured gasification temperature. A
multivariate regression relates these parameters (representative of
producer gas, tar and char distribution variations) to operating
conditions and fuel compositions.
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

MODELLING

The thermodynamic properties of biomass were obtained from atomic group

contributions. Char was assumed to be solid graphite (C). The light gas
species considered were {O2, H2O, H2, CO2, CO, CH4, N2, NH3} and C2H4
representing all remaining light hydrocarbon gases.

The stoichiometry was generated from the following master equation:

  𝑚 3
(
𝐶 𝑛 𝐻 𝑚 𝑂 𝑝 𝑁 𝑞 + ( 𝑛 − 𝑝 ) 𝐶𝑂 2 ↔ ( 2 𝑛 − 𝑝 ) 𝐶𝑂 + )
− 𝑞 𝐻 2 +𝑞 𝑁𝐻 3
2 2

Four model tar compounds were kept for flowsheet calculations: fulfural,
phenol, naphtalene and pyridine.
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

OBJECTIVE FUNCTIONS
−
𝑤
  𝑒 Electricity generated
+¿¿
+¿ 𝑤  𝑖 Power consumption of each process equipment
 
𝜂=𝑤
− ∑𝑤 𝑖
¿
𝑒
Δ𝑘
°
𝑤𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑚
˙ 𝑤𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑚
  ˙ 𝑤𝑜𝑜𝑑 Dry ash free (daf) mass flow rate

 Δ 𝑘 °𝑤𝑜𝑜𝑑 Specific chemical exergy of wood calculated

with the method of Szargut and Styrylska
The model considers that no fuel other than wood could be imported to the
process, nor waste heat exported from the process. The properties of wood are
specified in the model.
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

OBJECTIVE FUNCTIONS

The second objective is the total grass roots costs, i.e., the total investment
cost for a new production site:
𝐶
  𝐺𝑅 Total grass roots costs CGR

Equipment costs considering actual

𝐶
  𝐵𝑀 −𝑎𝑐 operating conditions and
construction materials

𝐶𝐺𝑅 =( 1+𝛼1 ) ∑ 𝐶 𝐵𝑀 −𝑎𝑐 +𝛼 2 ∑ 𝐶 𝐵𝑀 −𝑏𝑐

  𝐶
  𝐵𝑀 −𝑏 𝑐 Bare module equipment costs at
base case conditions

  = 18%

  =35%
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

OPTIMIZATION CASES STUDIES

Six alternatives have been included in the optimisation superstructure

Each scenario combines

Air, steam, oxygen gasifier whith gas cleaning process combined with a
ICE-CC (internal combustion engine)

hot gas cleaning process combined

with a GT-CC (gas turbine)
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

OPTIMIZATION CASES STUDIES

CONSIDERATIONS These assumptions

became of interest for assessing the sensitivity
of the equilibrium
modeL

Modelling steam and oxygen gasification scenarios

Assuming that both gasifiers could be adapted to operate either in

atmospheric or pressurised conditions
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

OPTIMIZATION CASES STUDIES

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

 temperature and pressure losses in the different equipments

INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

OPTIMIZATION CASES STUDIES

FOR OXYGEN GASIFICATION

an ASU using ceramic ion

transfer membranes
(ITM)
Other technologies
•(800-900°C)
•Criogenyc separation
•Mechanical power
consumption=150kWh/ton O2

Most economical option

INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

OPTIMIZATION CASES STUDIES

ICE FLOWSHEET MODELLING EQUATIONS

•The stoichiometric combustion fuel to air ratio was assumed to be 1.6

•nmec: mechanical efficiency

•ncool:engine cooling water requirements
•nflue: flue gas temperature
were related
to the electrical power generation by empirical efficiency
calculations
Related to the electrical power
generation by empirical efficiency
calculations
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

OPTIMIZATION CASES STUDIES

DECISION VARIABLES

10 decision variables

•Operating conditions
•Steam cycle operational variables
•Wood moisture content after drying (mc)
•ER: equivalence ratio for air or oxygen gasification
•SBR: steam to biomass ratio, for steam gasification
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

OPTIMIZATION CASES STUDIES

INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

OPTIMIZATION CASES STUDIES

COST FUNCTION SCALING VARIABLES

EQUIPMENT COSTS

affect

Decision variables Composition and fuel properties

of wood
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

IMPACT OF DECISIÓN VARIABLES ON OPTIMIZATION RESULTS

After 15,000 evaluations, steam gasification had the most favourable

trade-off, and that of air gasification mostly dominated that of oxygen
gasification.
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

IMPACT OF DECISIÓN VARIABLES ON OPTIMIZATION RESULTS

• investment costs tend to be minimised with GT-CC
• ER and SBR are not strongly correlated variables because they practically always
take constant values.
• In respect to the different oxidants and in terms of optimal specific capital costs,
steam gasification still appears as the best option (with specific costs of 2130
€/kWe for GT-CC, and 2717 €/kWe for ICE-CC) followed by air (GT-CC: 2465
€/kWe; ICE-CC: 3110 €/kWe) and oxygen gasification (GT-CC: 2805 €/kWe; ICE-
CC: 3324 €/kWe).
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

IMPACT OF DECISIÓN VARIABLES ON OPTIMIZATION RESULTS

• investment costs tend to be minimised with GT-CC
• ER and SBR are not strongly correlated variables because they practically always
take constant values.
• In respect to the different oxidants and in terms of optimal specific capital costs,
steam gasification still appears as the best option (with specific costs of 2130
€/kWe for GT-CC, and 2717 €/kWe for ICE-CC) followed by air (GT-CC: 2465
€/kWe; ICE-CC: 3110 €/kWe) and oxygen gasification (GT-CC: 2805 €/kWe; ICE-
CC: 3324 €/kWe).
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

IMPACT OF DECISIÓN VARIABLES ON OPTIMIZATION RESULTS

•The ICE is costlier than the gas turbine, is also more efficient.
•Oxygen plant, gasifier, and gas cleaning equipment costs vary essentially in
function of the volumetric flow of gases.

•As a consequence, oxygen gasification, although penalised by the

incremental cost of the ASU, is advantaged by the lower cost of the gasifier
and gas cleaning equipment, which become higher for air gasification due to
nitrogen gas and also for steam gasification due to the higher oxidant to
biomass ratio

.
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

IMPACT OF DECISIÓN VARIABLES ON OPTIMIZATION RESULTS

•The cost of wood dryers and heat exchangers is small compared with other
equipments
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

IMPACT OF DECISIÓN VARIABLES ON OPTIMIZATION RESULTS

•(9b) is included only when material stream compositions

are changed by chemical reactions
•The most important exergy losses are due to chemical reactions
(gasification, combustion)
INTRODUCTION GAS CONTAMINANTS AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION THERMO-ECONOMIC
GAS CLEANING OPTIMISATION

CONCLUSION

•Plant capacity of 20 MWth,wood was obtained and analysed

to identify process operating conditions that minimise tar formation.
•Under the current modelling assumptions, optimisation results indicate
that the energy conversion efficiency is maximised using ICE-CC at
operating conditions that also favour low tar concentrations.

•As for choosing among different oxidants

steam gasification would appear to have the best specific
capital costs (the optimal specific cost of GT-CC is 2.1
€/We, while that of ICE-CC is 2.7 €/We), followed by air gasification (GT-
CC: 2.5 €/We; ICE-CC: 3.1 €/We), and finally oxygen gasification (GT-
CC: 2.8 €/We; ICE-CC: 3.3 €/We).