Diffused introduction of Organic Rankine Cycle for biomass-based power generation in an industrial district: a systems analysis

Abstract

Specific Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) units dedicated to biomass-based power production have recently been developed through the introduction of novel organic working media and technology innovation. For small systems, ORC technology appears as an efficient alternative to conventional generation if also process waste heat can be exploited, as resulted in the last few years from the successful operation of several demonstration plants in Austria and Switzerland. The present study aims to investigate the impact of the introduction of ORC units in an industrial context from a system perspective, with particular reference to industrial districts, which are characterized by the concentration in small areas of a large number of medium- and small-sized firms. The paper focuses on the opportunity of combining ORCs, traditional Rankine cycles and multi-source district heating to meet energy requirements in an industrial district in North Eastern Italy. To this end, a mixed-integer linear programming model oriented to economical optimization of the system is developed and sensitivity analysis is carried out in order to determine the conditions for the expansion of biomass-based power generation in the analyzed industrial district and to evaluate potential for CO2 emission reduction

Effects of changes in Italian bioenergy promotion schemes for agricultural biogas projects: Insights from a regional optimization model

“…Efficiencies and ratios have been derived from the literature (Chinese et al, 2004;Pantaleo et al, 2013), considering the size classes defined in the model, and are reported in Table 5.…”

“…The ORC cost function is derived from previous studies (Chinese et al, 2004), while costs of anaerobic digesters (ADs), including civil works and of internal combustion engines are obtained as a least squares interpolation of data gathered from constructors and reported in Figure 5.…”

Comparative techno-economic analysis of ORC and gasification for bioenergy applications

“…In this work the various technological options examined apply solely to the base-load device, whereas the peak-load biomass boiler characteristics remain the same in all scenarios. In all cases, a centralized power plant is considered, as it has been suggested by [8] that distributed cogeneration appears to be less efficient. The heating and cooling generated is transferred via a district energy network to the final consumers.…”

“…District heating combined with CHP has been used for many years now, but lately the shift towards biomass-powered CHP is apparent. Biomass CHP with district heating has not been considered a viable option for areas with warm climate up to now, as in these areas traditional cogeneration applications tend to prove financially unviable, due to the short operational time within the year [8]. It is interesting to note that the British Energy Efficiency Office has recommended that a CHP system should run for a minimum of 4500 h per annum to be financially viable [9].…”

“…The economics of biomass-fired ORC have not been thoroughly investigated in the relevant literature. However, some applications have been examined, as in [8], where a biomass-based ORC system with district heating and power generation has been found to be financially attractive, under the condition that a centralized cogeneration ORC plant is considered, rather than a number of distributed, small cogeneration units.…”