Exergoeconomic analysis of a hybrid system based on steam biomass gasification products for hydrogen production

In this paper, a conceptual hybrid biomass gasification system is developed to produce hydrogen and is exergoeconomically analyzed. The system is based on steam biomass gasification with the lumped solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and solid oxide electrolyser cell (SOEC) subsystem as the core components. The gasifier gasifies sawdust in a steam medium and operates at a temperature range of 1023-1423 K and near atmospheric pressure. The analysis is conducted for a specific steam biomass ratio of 0.8 kmol-steam/kmol-biomass. The gasification process is assumed to be self-thermally standing. The pressurized SOFC and SOEC are of planar types and operate at 1000 K and 1.2 bar. The system can produce multi-outputs, such as hydrogen (with a production capacity range of 21.8-25.2 kgh⁻¹), power and heat. The internal hydrogen consumption in the lumped SOFC-SOEC subsystem increases from 8.1 to 8.6 kg/h. The SOFC performs an efficiency of 50.3% and utilizes the hydrogen produced from the steam that decomposes in the SOEC. The exergoeconomic analysis is performed to investigate and describe the exergetic and economic interactions between the system components through calculations of the unit exergy cost of the process streams. It obtains a set of cost balance equations belonging to an exergy flow with material streams to and from the components which constitute the system. Solving the developed cost balance equations provides the cost values of the exergy streams. For the gasification temperature range and the electricity cost of 0.1046 $/kWh considered, the unit exergy cost of hydrogen ranges from 0.258 to 0.211 $/kWh.     

Energy and exergy analysis and optimization of biomass gasification process for hydrogen production (based on air,steam and air/steam gasifying agents)

Growing the consumption of fossil fuels and emerging global warming issue have driven the research interests toward renewable and environmentally friendly energy sources. Biomass gasification is identified as an efficient technology to produce sustainable hydrogen. In this work, energy and exergy analysis coupled with thermodynamic equilibrium model were implemented in biomass gasification process for production of hydrogen. In this regard, a detailed comparison of the performance of a downdraft gasifier was implemented using air, steam, and air/steam as the gasifying agents for horse manure, pinewood and sawdust as the biomass materials. The comparison results indicate that the steam gasification of pinewood generates a more desired product gas compositions with a much higher hydrogen exergy efficiency and low exergy values of unreacted carbon and irreversibility. Then the effects of the inherent operating factors were investigated and optimized applying a response surface methodology to maximize hydrogen exergy efficiency of the process. A hydrogen exergy efficiency of 44% was obtained when the product gas exergy efficiency reaches to the highest value (88.26%) and destruction and unreacted carbon efficiencies exhibit minimum values of 7.96% and 1.9%.     

Thermodynamic modeling of an integrated biomass gasification and solid oxide fuel cell system

An integrated process of biomass gasification and solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) is investigated using energy and exergy analyses. The performance of the system is assessed by calculating several parameters such as electrical efficiency, combined heat and power efficiency, power to heat ratio, exergy destruction ratio, and exergy efficiency. A performance comparison of power systems for different gasification agents is given by thermodynamic analysis. Exergy analysis is applied to investigate exergy destruction in components in the power systems. When using oxygen-enriched air as gasification agent, the gasifier reactor causes the greatest exergy destruction. About 29% of the chemical energy of the biomass is converted into net electric power, while about 17% of it is used to for producing hot water for district heating purposes. The total exergy efficiency of combined heat and power is 29%. For the case in which steam as the gasification agent, the highest exergy destruction lies in the air preheater due to the great temperature difference between the hot and cold side. The net electrical efficiency is about 40%. The exergy combined heat and power efficiency is above 36%, which is higher than that when air or oxygen-enriched air as gasification agent.     

Effect of gasification agent on the performance of solid oxide fuel cell and biomass gasification systems

In this paper, an integrated solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and biomass gasification system is modeled to study the effect of gasification agent (air, enriched oxygen and steam) on its performance. In the present modeling, a heat transfer model for SOFC and thermodynamic models for the rest of the components are used. In addition, exergy balances are written for the system components. The results show that using steam as the gasification agent yields the highest electrical efficiency (41.8%), power-to-heat ratio (4.649), and exergetic efficiency (39.1%), but the lowest fuel utilization efficiency (50.8%). In addition, the exergy destruction is found to be the highest at the gasifier for the air and enriched oxygen gasification cases and the heat exchanger that supplies heat to the air entering the SOFC for the steam gasification case.     

Biomass-based hydrogen production: A review and analysis

In this study, various processes for conversion of biomass into hydrogen gas are comprehensively reviewed in terms of two main groups, namely (i) thermo-chemical processes (pyrolysis, conventional gasification, supercritical water gasification (SCWG)), and (ii) biological conversions (fermentative hydrogen production, photosynthesis, biological water gas shift reactions (BWGS)). Biomass-based hydrogen production systems are discussed in terms of their energetic and exergetic aspects. Literature studies and potential methods are then summarized for comparison purposes. In addition, a biomass gasification process via oxygen and steam in a downdraft gasifier is exergetically studied for performance assessment as a case study. The operating conditions and strategies are really important for better performance of the system for hydrogen production. A distinct range of temperatures and pressures is used, such as that the temperatures may vary from 480 to 1400 °C, while the pressures are in the range of 0.1–50 MPa in various thermo-chemical processes reviewed. For the operating conditions considered the data for steam biomass ratio (SBR) and equivalence ratio (ER) range from 0.6 to 10 and 0.1 to 0.4, respectively. In the study considered, steam is used as the gasifying agent with a product gas heating value of about 10–15 MJ/Nm³, compared to an air gasification of biomass process with 3–6 MJ/Nm³. The exergy efficiency value for the case study system is calculated to be 56.8%, while irreversibility and improvement potential rates are found to be 670.43 and 288.28 kW, respectively. Also, exergetic fuel and product rates of the downdraft gasifier are calculated as 1572.08 and 901.64 kW, while fuel depletion and productivity lack ratios are 43% and 74.3%, respectively.     

Integrated adsorption steam gasification for enhanced hydrogen production from palm waste at bench scale plant

The generation of hydrogen-enriched synthesis gas from catalytic steam gasification of biomass with in-situ CO₂ capture utilizing CaO has a high perspective as clean energy fuels. The present study focused on the process modeling of catalytic steam gasification of biomass using palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) as biomass for hydrogen generation through experimental work. Experiment work has been carried out using a fluidized bed gasifier on a bench-scale plant. The established model integrates the kinetics of EFB catalytic steam gasification reactions, in-situ capturing of CO₂, mass and energy balance calculations. Chemical reaction constants have been calculated via the parameters fitting optimization approach. The influence of operating parameters, mainly temperature, steam to biomass, and sorbent to biomass ratio, was investigated for the hydrogen purity and yield through the experimental study and developed model. The results predicted approximately 75 vol% of the hydrogen purity in the product gas composition. The maximum H₂ yield produced from the gasifier was 127 gH₂/kg of EFB via experimental setup. The increase in both steam to biomass ratio and temperature enhanced the production of hydrogen gas. Comparing the results with already published literature showed that the current system enables to produce a high amount of hydrogen from EFB.     

Exergy analysis of synthetic natural gas production method from biomass

The paper presents the results of exergy analysis for a biomass-to-synthetic natural gas (SNG) conversion process. The presented study is based on wood gasification, which is analysed for different gasification conditions like temperature and/or pressure. The analysed temperature was varied in the range from 650 to 800 °C and the pressure range was from 1 to 15 bar. The main process units of biomass-to-SNG conversion technology are gasifier, gas cleaning, synthesis gas compression, CH₄ synthesis and final SNG conditioning. The results showed that the largest exergy losses take place in the biomass gasifier, CH₄ synthesis part and CO₂ capture unit. The overall exergetic efficiency of the biomass-to-SNG process was estimated in the range of about 69.5–71.8%.     

Exergy analysis of updraft and downdraft fixed bed gasification of village-level solid waste

The most commonly used for gasification of village-level solid waste is the fixed-bed gasifier, but there is no reasonable method to evaluate the gasification process. This paper attempts to find a gasifier that is most suitable for gasification of village-level solid wastes through exergy analysis method. Based on experimental data from literature, the exergy efficiencies and LHV(Low Heat Value) of product gas from updraft and downdraft fixed bed gasifier are studied in this paper. The results show that the updraft fixed bed gasifier has higher exergy efficiency, and the gas produced by the downdraft fixed bed gasifier has a higher heating value. Air gasification has higher exergy efficiency than steam gasification and pure oxygen gasification. The highest exergy efficiency at a gasification temperature of about 1000 °C and ER (Equivalence Ratio) value in the range of 0.33–0.36. The volatile content of gasification raw materials is higher, and the gasification efficiency is higher. Through the research of this paper, a new path to reasonably evaluate the gasification process is obtained.     

First and second law thermodynamic analysis of a single and dual-stage ignition biomass downdraft gasifier

The dual-stage ignition biomass downdraft gasifier is an enormous tar reduction technology as against a single-stage ignition biomass gasification. Exergetic analysis of the system guides toward a possible performance enhancement. In dual-stage gasification, around 67.76% of input exergy is destructed in the several components, while 9.16% is obtained as a useful exergy output and 24.34% is found to be as a useful energy output there. The entire unit was assessed with a progressively rising electric load from 15.24 kW to 38.86 kW. The enhanced producer gas quality comes from 57% combustible gas with a higher heating value of 6.524 MJ/Nm³ and tar content of 7 mg/Nm³ after the paper filter, whereas the biomass consumption rate is 58 kg/h at the greatest load with the grate temperature of 1310–1370 °C. The samples of exhaust gas emissions are obtained environmentally favorable. The results even described that the dual-stage ignition biomass downdraft gasifier has significantly greater energetic and exergetic efficiency as compared to the single-stage gasifier.     

Hydrogen-rich gas production from biomass air and oxygen/steam gasification in a downdraft gasifier

Biomass gasification is an important method to obtain renewable hydrogen. However, this technology still stagnates in a laboratory scale because of its high-energy consumption. In order to get maximum hydrogen yield and decrease energy consumption, this study applies a self-heated downdraft gasifier as the reactor and uses char as the catalyst to study the characteristics of hydrogen production from biomass gasification. Air and oxygen/steam are utilized as the gasifying agents. The experimental results indicate that compared to biomass air gasification, biomass oxygen/steam gasification improves hydrogen yield depending on the volume of downdraft gasifier, and also nearly doubles the heating value of fuel gas. The maximum lower heating value of fuel gas reaches 11.11 MJ/N m³ for biomass oxygen/steam gasification. Over the ranges of operating conditions examined, the maximum hydrogen yield reaches 45.16 g H₂/kg biomass. For biomass oxygen/steam gasification, the content of H₂ and CO reaches 63.27–72.56%, while the content of H₂ and CO gets to 52.19–63.31% for biomass air gasification. The ratio of H₂/CO for biomass oxygen/steam gasification reaches 0.70–0.90, which is lower than that of biomass air gasification, 1.06–1.27. The experimental and comparison results prove that biomass oxygen/steam gasification in a downdraft gasifier is an effective, relatively low energy consumption technology for hydrogen-rich gas production.     

10 MW生物质气化耦合超临界燃煤锅炉系统火用平衡分析

为有效评价生物质气化耦合燃煤锅炉系统能量转换过程,分析该系统的节能潜力,以某10 MW循环流化床生物质气化炉耦合大型超临界燃煤机组为例,建立了该耦合系统的火用分析控制体模型,利用Aspen plus平台对该系统实际运行过程进行火用平衡分析。结果表明：当前运行工况下,生物质气化过程火用损失是耦合系统最大的火用损失,达到42.28%,其次是可燃气体在燃煤锅炉内的燃烧及传热过程,为25.32%。因此系统运行过程中应采取优化运行措施,减小气化过程火用损失,同时气化炉应尽量与高参数的大型机组耦合运行,可燃气体选取在燃煤锅炉合适位置输入,以保证充分燃烧。     

Conceptual design and analysis of a novel system based on ash agglomerating fluidized bed gasification for co-production of hydrogen and electricity

In this paper, a novel system with ash agglomerating fluidized bed gasification and CO₂ capture to produce hydrogen and electricity is firstly designed in Aspen Plus. The newly-proposed system is composed of eight subsystems, namely air separation unit, gasification unit, water gas shift unit, Rectisol unit, CO₂ compression unit, Claus unit, pressure swing adsorption unit, gas and steam turbine unit. The thermodynamic performance and hydrogen to coal ratio of the new proposed system are investigated. The results demonstrate that the hydrogen to coal ratio, energy efficiency, net electricity power and exergy efficiency of the overall system for Yangcheng anthracite are 0.096 kg/kg, 46.52%, 1.71 MW and 43.92%, respectively. Additionally, the exergy destruction ratio and exergy efficiency of each subsystem are researched. More importantly, the influences of the oxygen to coal ratio, steam to coal ratio and coal types on the hydrogen to coal ratio, energy efficiency and exergy efficiency are also studied.     

Study of synthesis gas composition,exergy assessment,and multi-criteria decision-making analysis of fluidized bed gasifier

A system based a fluidized bed gasifier with steam as a gasifying agent is investigated in details. Comparing the synthesis of gas compositions with experimental data available in the literature is used to validate the model. The synthesis of gas composition and efficiencies of the system is investigated respect to different biomasses considered as gasification fuels. The results indicate that the molar fractions of hydrogen and carbon dioxide are increased and the molar fraction of carbon monoxide is reduced with steam to biomass ratio (STBR). The hydrogen and cold gas efficiencies are improved with decreasing STBR. Hydrogen, cold gas, and exergy efficiencies are enhanced with temperature. The results illuminate that pine sawdust and straw have the highest hydrogen production and legume straw produces the lowest CO molar fraction. Straw has the highest hydrogen efficiency, eucalyptus and straw have the highest cold gas efficiency, and eucalyptus has the highest exergy efficiency. A systematical analytical hierarchy process (AHP)/technique for order preferences by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) couple method are utilized to select the best alternative. The results illuminate that eucalyptus, straw, and pine sawdust are the best candidates, respectively as gasification fuel based on the considered criteria.     

Energy and exergy analysis of syngas production from different biomasses through air-steam gasification

Gasification is a thermo-chemical reaction which converts biomass into fuel gases in a reactor. The efficiency of conversion depends on the effective working of the gasifier. The first step in the conversion process is the selection of a suitable feedstock capable of generating more gaseous fuels. This paper analyses the performance of different biomasses during gasification through energy and exergy analysis. A quasi-equilibrium model is developed to simulate and compare the feasibility of different biomass materials as gasifier feedstock. Parametric studies are conducted to analyze the effect of temperature, steam to biomass ratio and equivalence ratio on energy and exergy efficiencies. Of the biomasses considered, sawdust has the highest energy and exergy efficiencies and lowest irreversibility. At a gasification temperature of 1000 K, the steam to biomass ratio of unity and the equivalence ratio of 0.25, the energy efficiency, exergy efficiency and irreversibility of sawdust are 35.62%, 36.98% and 10.62 MJ/kg, respectively. It is also inferred that the biomass with lower ash content and higher carbon content contributes to maximum energy and exergy efficiencies.     

Exergetic evaluation of biomass gasification

Biomass has great potential as a clean, renewable feedstock for producing modern energy carriers. This paper focuses on the process of biomass gasification, where the synthesis gas may subsequently be used for the production of electricity, fuels and chemicals. The gasifier is one of the least-efficient unit operations in the whole biomass-to-energy technology chain and an analysis of the efficiency of the gasifier alone can substantially contribute to the efficiency improvement of this chain. The purpose of this paper is to compare different types of biofuels for their gasification efficiency and benchmark this against gasification of coal. In order to quantify the real value of the gasification process exergy-based efficiencies, defined as the ratio of chemical and physical exergy of the synthesis gas to chemical exergy of a biofuel, are proposed in this paper. Biofuels considered include various types of wood, vegetable oil, sludge, and manure. In this study, exergetic efficiencies are evaluated for an idealized gasifier in which chemical equilibrium is reached, ashes are not considered and heat losses are neglected. The gasification efficiencies are evaluated at the carbon-boundary point, where exactly enough air is added to avoid carbon formation and achieve complete gasification. The cold-gas efficiency of biofuels was found to be comparable to that of coal. It is shown that the exergy efficiencies of biofuels are lower than the corresponding energetic efficiencies. For liquid biofuels, such as sludge and manure, gasification at the optimum point is not possible, and exergy efficiency can be improved by drying the biomass using the enthalpy of synthesis gas.     

Comparative analysis of biomass and coal based co-gasification processes with and without CO2 capture for HT-PEMFCs

With the seasonal availability and low energy density of biomass and the high environmental impact of coal, the co-gasification of biomass and coal is an alternative approach facilitating a trade-off between renewable and non-renewable resources. The aim of this study was to investigate hydrogen production from the co-gasification of biomass and coal integrated by means of the sorption-enhanced water gas shift reactor (G-SEWGS) for a high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC). The effects of the gasifier temperature, the steam to fuel ratio (S/F ratio), and the equivalence ratio (ER) on the hydrogen production performance and environmental impact of the G-SEWGS were theoretically analysed and compared with the conventional gasifier integrated with the water gas shift reactor (G-WGS) and the sorption-enhanced gasifier integrated with the water gas shift reactor (SEG-WGS). As compared to the conventional water gas shift reactor, the addition of a CaO sorbent in the modified water gas shift reactor not only reduces the amount of the CO₂ emission but also leads to an increase in the hydrogen concentration and hydrogen content. The G-SEWGS provides better performance in terms of its fuel processor efficiency and CO₂ emission than the G-WGS and the SEG-WGS. Also, the problem of sulphur compound in the hydrogen-rich gas can be reduced by using of the sorption-enhanced water gas shift reactor (SEWGS). The best system exergy efficiency, which was around 22% for the power generation, was determined from the HT-PEMFC integrated with the G-SEWGS. The main exergy destruction of around 70% of the total loss was caused by hydrogen production processes.     

Exergy analysis of two cryogenic air separation processes

Two process designs of a cryogenic ASU (air separation unit) have been evaluated using exergy analysis. The ASU is part of an IGCC (integrated gasification combined cycle); it is supplying oxygen and nitrogen to the gasifier and nitrogen to the gas turbine. The two process designs separate the same feed into products with the same specifications. They differ in the number of distillation columns that are used; either two or three. Addition of the third column reduced the exergy destruction in the distillation section with 31%. Overall, the three-column design destroyed 12% less exergy than the two-column design. The rational exergy efficiency is defined as the desired exergy change divided by the total exergy change; it is 38% for the three-column design and 35% for the two-column design. Almost half of the exergy destruction is located in compressor after-coolers. Using this heat of compression elsewhere in the IGCC can be an important way to increase the IGCC efficiency. It is proposed to use it for the pre-heating of ASU products or for the production of steam, which can be used as part of the steam turbine cycle.     

Gas turbine steam injection and combined power cycles using fog inlet cooling and biomass fuel: A thermodynamic assessment

The results of energy and exergy analyses of two biomass integrated steam injection cycles and combined power cycles are reported. Fog cooling, steam injection and adding steam turbine cycles to gas turbine cycles can enhance the performance of power generation systems. Even with its lower heat value, biomass can be substituted for fossil fuels. The performances of the cycles are assessed under the same conditions. The assessments show that the combined cycle has a higher efficiency at lower values of compressor pressure ratio but the steam injection plant is advantageous at higher pressure ratio values. The steam injection plant has a higher net power under the same conditions, while the exergy loss rate is higher for the combined cycle at all pressure ratios. But the exergy destruction rate is higher for the steam injection cycle at lower compressor pressure ratios, and for the combined cycle at higher pressure ratios.     

Conceptual design and system analysis of a poly-generation system for power and olefin production from natural gas

In this paper, a novel poly-generation system for olefin and power production from natural gas is proposed, which integrates hydrocarbon production and the combined cycle power generation. Economic and technological evaluation based on the internal rate of return (IRR) and exergy efficiency is performed. The energy integration results in the proposed poly-generation system for simultaneous production of chemical products (ethylene and propylene) and electricity being more thermodynamically efficient and economically viable than single purpose power generation and chemical products production plants. IRR and exergy efficiency of the proposed poly-generation system are higher than that of natural gas methanol to olefin (NGMTO) system, 18.9% and 49.9%, respectively. The biggest exergy destruction segments, their causes, and possible measures for improvement are investigated simulation and thermodynamic analysis. To analyze the effect of unreacted syngas recycle on the exergy efficiency and economic gains from the proposed poly-generation system, its thermoeconomic optimization model is built by combining economic with thermodynamic analysis. Optimization analysis shows that when 78% of the unreacted syngas is recycled back to the reactor in the methanol synthesization process, the thermoeconomic performance of the poly-generation system is at its optimum.     

Catalytic steam co-gasification of biomass and coal in a dual loop gasification system with olivine catalysts

A dual loop gasification system (DLG) has been previously proposed to facilitate tar destruction and H₂-rich gas production in steam gasification of biomass. To sustain the process auto-thermal, however, additional fuel with higher carbon content has to be supplied. Co-gasification of biomass in conjunction with coal is a preferred option. Herein, the heat balance of the steam co-gasification of pine sawdust and Shenmu bituminous coal in the DLG has been analyzed to verify the feasibility of the process with the help of Aspen Plus. Upon which, the co-gasification experiments in the DLG have been investigated with olivine as both solid heat carriers and in-situ tar destruction catalysts. The simulation results show that the self-heating of the DLG in the co-gasification is achieved at the coal blending ratio of 28%, gasification circulation ratio of 19 and reforming circulation ratio of 20 when the gasifier temperature 800 °C, reforming temperature 850 °C, combustor temperature 920 °C and S/C 1.1. The co-gasification experiments indicate that the tar is efficiently destructed in the DLG at the optimized reformer temperature and with olivine catalysts.