Biomass and Natural Gas Hybrid Combined Cycles

Abstract: Biomass is one of the main natural resources in Sweden.Increased utilisation of biomass for energy purposes incombined heat and power (CHP) plants can help the country meetits nuclear phase-out commitment. The present low-CO2 emissioncharacteristics of the Swedish electricity production system(governed by hydropower and nuclear power) can be retained onlyby expansion of biofuels in the CHP sector. Domestic Swedishbiomass resources are vast and renewable, but not infinite.They should be utilised as efficiently as possible in order tomeet the conditions for sustainability in the future.Application of efficient power generation cycles at low cost isessential for meeting this challenge. This applies also tomunicipal solid waste (MSW) incineration with energyextraction, which is to be preferred to landfilling.Modern gas turbines and internal combustion engines firedwith natural gas have comparatively low installation costs,good efficiency characteristics and show reliable performancein power applications. Environmental and source-of-supplyfactors place natural gas at a disadvantage as compared tobiofuels. However, from a rational perspective, the use ofnatural gas (being the least polluting fossil fuel) togetherwith biofuels contributes to a diverse and more secure resourcemix. The question then arises if both these fuels can beutilised more efficiently if they are employed at the samelocation, in one combined cycle unit.The work presented herein concentrates on the hybriddual-fuel combined cycle concept in cold-condensing and CHPmode, with a biofuel-fired bottoming steam cycle and naturalgas fired topping gas turbine or engine. Higher electricalefficiency attributable to both fuels is sought, while keepingthe impact on environment at a low level and incorporating onlyproven technology with standard components. The study attemptsto perform a generalized and systematic evaluation of thethermodynamic advantages of various hybrid configurations withthe help of computer simulations, comparing the efficiencyresults to clearly defined reference values.Results show that the electrical efficiency of hybridconfigurations rises with up to 3-5 %-points in cold-condensingmode (up to 3 %-points in CHP mode), compared to the sum of twosingle-fuel reference units at the relevant scales, dependingon type of arrangement and type of bottoming fuel. Electricalefficiency of utilisation of the bottoming fuel (biomass orMSW) within the overall hybrid configuration can increase withup to 8-10 %-points, if all benefits from the thermalintegration are assigned to the bottoming cycle and effects ofscale on the reference electrical efficiency are accounted for.All fully-fired (windbox) configurations show advantages of upto 4 %-points in total efficiency in CHP mode with districtheating output, when flue gas condensation is applied. Theadvantages of parallel-powered configurations in terms of totalefficiency in CHP mode are only marginal. Emissions offossil-based CO2 can be reduced with 20 to 40 kg CO2/MWhel incold-condensing mode and with 5-8 kg CO2 per MWh total outputin CHP mode at the optimum performance points.Keywords: Biomass, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), Natural Gas,Simulation, Hybrid, Combined Cycle, Gas Turbine, InternalCombustion Engine, Utilization, Electrical Efficiency, TotalEfficiency, CHP.