Exergoeconomic and Environmental Modeling of Integrated Polygeneration Power Plant with Biomass-Based Syngas Supplemental Firing

• Published in: Energies (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 22; p. 6018
• Main Authors: Abam, Fidelis. I., Diemuodeke, Ogheneruona E., Ekwe, Ekwe. B., Alghassab, Mohammed, Samuel, Olusegun D., Khan, Zafar A., Imran, Muhammad, Farooq, Muhammad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.11.2020
• Subjects: Alternative energy sources; Biomass; Biomass energy; Capital costs; Carbon; Carbon dioxide; Climate change; Cooling; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Electricity; Emissions; Energy efficiency; Energy industry; Energy resources; Environmental impact; Environmental modeling; exergetic utility exponent; Exergy; Fossil fuels; gas turbine; Gas turbines; Genetic algorithms; Industrial plant emissions; Kalina cycle; Medical research; multigeneration; Natural gas; Nitrogen oxides; Pandemics; Power plants; Rankine cycle; Renewable resources; Retrofitting; Steam turbines; Sustainability; Synthesis gas; thermo-enviroeconomic; Thermodynamics; Turbines; Nigeria
• ISSN: 1996-1073; 1996-1073
• DOI: 10.3390/en13226018

There is a burden of adequate energy supply for meeting demand and reducing emission to avoid the average global temperature of above 2 °C of the pre-industrial era. Therefore, this study presents the exergoeconomic and environmental analysis of a proposed integrated multi-generation plant (IMP), with supplemental biomass-based syngas firing. An in-service gas turbine plant, fired by natural gas, was retrofitted with a gas turbine (GT), steam turbine (ST), organic Rankine cycle (ORC) for cooling and power production, a modified Kalina cycle (KC) for power production and cooling, and a vapour absorption system (VAB) for cooling. The overall network, energy efficiency, and exergy efficiency of the IMP were estimated at 183 MW, 61.50% and 44.22%, respectively. The specific emissions were estimated at 122.2, 0.222, and 3.0 × 10−7 kg/MWh for CO2, NOx, and CO, respectively. Similarly, the harmful fuel emission factor, and newly introduced sustainability indicators—exergo-thermal index (ETI) and exergetic utility exponent (EUE)—were obtained as 0.00067, 0.675, and 0.734, respectively. The LCC of $1.58 million was obtained, with a payback of 4 years, while the unit cost of energy was estimated at 0.0166 $/kWh. The exergoeconomic factor and the relative cost difference of the IMP were obtained as 50.37% and 162.38%, respectively. The optimum operating parameters obtained by a genetic algorithm gave the plant’s total cost rate of 125.83 $/hr and exergy efficiency of 39.50%. The proposed system had the potential to drive the current energy transition crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic shock in the energy sector.