Journal of Energy Engineering

A new performance model of the externally fired combined cycle (EFCC) is implemented in ASPEN (Advanced System for Process ENgineering), a chemical process simulator. The model accounts for interactions within and between approximately a dozen major process areas. The new model is applied to case studies to evaluate the sensitivity of process performance to the ranges of uncertainty in key model inputs such as heat losses, carbon conversion, and air leakage rates, and to illustrate how alternative designs, including steam injection and flue gas desulfurization (FGD), can affect plant thermal efficiency and net power output. The model results suggest that careful attention to the design of the FGD system is needed, especially with respect to reheat, and that steam injection may offer cost savings associated with reducing the size of the steam turbine with little or no penalty on plant output or plant efficiency. Uncertainties in the slagging combustor and the ceramic heat exchanger may lead to significant penalties on process performance.

Biomass has the potential to contribute a significant portion of the electricity consumed in industrialized nations and a major share of the power mix in developing countries. In addition to providing an alternative to fossil-fuel-based energy and creating new markets for agriculture, a renewable resource like biomass used in a sustainable fashion facilitates closure of the carbon cycle. To realize these benefits, particularly in the shadow of uncertainties cast by deregulation and recent changes in federal energy and agricultural policies, biomass power systems must be competitive with incumbent power-generation technologies in terms of generation efficiency and overall cost. Anticipated performance and cost of biomass-based integrated gasification, combined-cycle power systems are discussed. The electric power that can be generated worldwide using existing biomass resources (primarily crop residues and wastes) and the potential amount that could be generated from crops grown specifically for electricity generation are projected. Technical and economic obstacles that must be overcome before advanced biomass-power systems based on aeroderivative turbines or fuel cells can become fully commercial are identified. Research, development, and demonstration efforts under way or being planned to overcome those obstacles are described; developments in a major biomass gasification demonstration project taking place in Hawaii under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy and the State of Hawaii are detailed.