Techno-Economic Analysis of a Small-Scale Biomass-to-Energy BFB Gasification-Based System

Abstract

In order to limit global warming to around 1.5–2.0 °C by the end of the 21st century, there is the need to drastically limit the emissions of CO2. This goal can be pursued by promoting the diffusion of advanced technologies for power generation from renewable energy sources. In this field, biomass can play a very important role since, differently from solar and wind, it can be considered a programmable source. This paper reports a techno-economic analysis on the possible commercial application of gasification technologies for small-scale (2 MWe) power generation from biomass. The analysis is based on the preliminary experimental performance of a 500 kWth pilot-scale air-blown bubbling fluidized-bed (BFB) gasification plant, recently installed at the Sotacarbo Research Centre (Italy) and commissioned in December 2017. The analysis confirms that air-blown BFB biomass gasification can be profitable for the applications with low-cost biomass, such as agricultural waste, with a net present value up to about 6 M€ as long as the biomass is provided for free; on the contrary, the technology is not competitive for high-quality biomass (wood chips, as those used for the preliminary experimental tests). In parallel, an analysis of the financial risk was carried out, in order to estimate the probability of a profitable investment if a variation of the key financial parameters occurs. In particular, the analysis shows a probability of 90% of a NPV at 15 years between 1.4 and 5.1 M€ and an IRR between 11.6% and 23.7%.

Techno-Economic and Environmental Assessment of Power Supply Chain by Using Waste Biomass Gasification in Iceland

“…The expenditures also include the Cc and C O&M . C c is divided into three categories: hardware price ( Cg ), installation cost (25% of C g ) and engineering costs, the engineering costs includes engineering and design (13% of C g ), purchasing & construction (14% of C g ), fuel handling/preparation (9% of C g ) and electrical/balance of plant (6% of C g ) (Porcu et al 2019;Sara et al 2016). C g is the overall price of gasifier system on the basis of various capacities.…”

“…2) The whole yearly C O&M can be determined by the sum of the costs for the maintenance cost (2% of Cc ), insurance and tax (2% of Cc ), waste disposal (15% of Cc ), electricity cost, liquid fuel cost and personnel cost. Electricity costs are calculated based on electricity consumers and liquid fuel costs are estimated for fuel consumers with 7000 h/year of plant availability (Porcu et al 2019;Sara et al 2016). The unitary cost of electrical and fuel energies supplied in Iceland are equal to 0.03 $/kWh and 1.08 $/lit (0.91 €/$ as conversion rate) (Safarian and Unnthorsson 2018).…”

Spouted-Bed Gasification of Flame Retardant Textiles as a Potential Non-Conventional Biomass

“…The water/moisture content is important in terms of thermal valorization and conversion efficiency of burnt material, high water content lowers the calorific value [39]. The high moisture content and relatively high carbon value, and an increase of other volatile matter compared to the total composition, make the samples a good candidate for oxidation and gasification processes and have a positive impact on biomass reactivity, ultimately [40]. For proximate analysis, residue of each sample burnt was determined as the ash, and carbon content was estimated [41].…”

Gasification of Woody Biomasses and Forestry Residues: Simulation, Performance Analysis, and Environmental Impact

“…Performance analysis of biomass gasification systems has been studied in many researches [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. However, the authors are not aware of any reported paper about the modeling of integrated downdraft biomass gasification with a power production unit.…”