Gas turbines: gas cleaning requirements for biomass-fired systems

Abstract

Increased interest in the development of renewable energy technologies has been hencouraged by the introduction of legislative measures in Europe to reduce CO 2 emissions from power generation in response to the potential threat of global warming. Of these technologies, biomass-firing represents a high priority because of the modest risk involved and the availability of waste biomass in many countries. Options based on farmed biomass are also under development. This paper reviews the challenges facing these technologies if they are to be cost competitive while delivering the supposed environmental benefits. In particular, it focuses on the use of biomass in gasification-based systems using gas turbines to deliver increased efficiencies. Results from recent studies in a European programme are presented. For these technologies to be successful, an optimal balance has to be achieved between the high cost of cleaning fuel gases, the reliability of the gas turbine and the fuel flexibility of the overall system. Such optimisation is necessary on a case-bycase basis, as local considerations can play a significant part.

Integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) systems

“…PM needs to be removed from raw syngas to avoid erosion or deposition problems for downstream equipment, such as damage to gas turbine blades (Oakey et al , 2004 ). There are two principal methods of PM removal practised in IGCC plants: (1) wet scrubbing and (2) gas fi ltration.…”

Integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant design and technology

“…The PM needs to be removed to avoid erosion or deposition problems for downstream equipment, such as damage to gas turbine blades (Oakey et al, 2004). The PM needs to be removed to avoid erosion or deposition problems for downstream equipment, such as damage to gas turbine blades (Oakey et al, 2004).…”

Millisecond Reforming of Solid Biomass for Sustainable Fuels

“…Significant research has focused on techniques for hot gas cleanup methods to remove tars and alkali that can foul or deposit downstream equipment . [32,33] Adsorption materials or other processes that remove these species will be necessary before combining the gasification step with the fuel synthesis step.…”