A STUDY OF BIOMASS UTILIZATION IN MICROTURBOENGINE COGENERATION PLANTS - Contract 272/2006
The contract was carried on in a national partnership between INCDT COMOTI Bucharest, the Technical University of Cluj Napoca, the Technical University "Gh. Asachi" of Iasi, the "Politehnica" Universitaty of Bucharest, and S.C. NEGURA Piatra Neamt, as wall as in a declared and achieved partnership with the Technical University of Wroclaw, Poland, the Applied Physics Instite of the Republic of Moldova, PEWO Energietechic, from Germany and Chanderpur Works, from Yamuna Nagar, India.
The research carried on focusing, 22122d322w principially, on several objectives, as follows:
The development of a wood by-product gasification installation, able to operate in a cogeneration cycle, hence an industrial installation, but also with specifics that allow for scientific experimentation (both now, and in the future);
The study and the development / purchase / modification / experimentation of microturboengines as basic models that can be integrated, together with the developed gasifier, in a cogeneration cycle;
The research effort involved in this project, from the mathematical
modeling to the actual experimantation was carried on
in view of these objectives. Also, this pahse of the
research process, does not close the field of interest, nut, quite the
contrary, it opens it, at least in
Considering the development stage reached in this research phase, it can be concluded that, taking into account the project timeline and, most of all, the available funding, the project goals have been accomplished, and can be synthetized as follows:
The comissiong, for the first time in
The completion, also for the first time in Romānia, of an complex installation consisting of a gasifier and two microturboengine types, able to operate on a misture of producer gas and natural gas in a cogeneration cycle, with postcombustion.
The continuation of the research effort should be focused, in the future, on several issues:
o Gasification optimization, especially for producer gas cleansing;
o Research studies coducted to develop a suitable microturboengine, dimensioned for this specific purpose. For this, however, the required funding is particularly large.
Currently, the solution can be extended for plants where the producer gas can be used in hot water, or steam, boilers, as well as for electrical power generation using reciprocating engines (this solution was experimented within this project).
As efficiency estimation, the following considerations can be made:
For the nominal volumetric flow rate of 125 m3/h and for an average heat of combustion of 1100 kcal/m3 the reulting thermal power is of 160 KWt.
(125 m3 x 1100 x 4.18 / 3600 = 160 KWt)
(125 m3 x 1100 x 4.18 = 574750 kJ / h / 40 = 14368 kJ / kg wood/ 4.18 = 3437 kcal / kg-wood)
If wood pellets are used:
(Pellets-360 lei / tonne = 100 Euro / tonne (maximum market prices))
to produce electrical power using a turboengine or a reciprocating engine with an electrical efficiency of 32%, a maximum production proce of 125 Euro / MWe, while the average price, according to ANRE 2008 are of 118 Euro / MWe:
(40 kg / h = 0,04 x 100 = 4 Euro / h = 25 Euro / MWt = 4 / .032 = 125 Euro / MWe)
Under these circumstances, the economical efficiency is marginal, but still acceptable, considering the rational utilization of saw dust, which is currently considered a polluting by-product. The thermal efficiency for the operation with a boiler is of 25 Euro / MWt, which still efficient.
Under normal circumstances, for operation with wood by-products, at wood mills, timber plants, and so on, the price of the wood by-product varies from case to case, being of maximum 10% of the price of the wood pellets. Hence, considering the price for using wood pellets, mentioned above, it can be concluded that electrical power production in this manner is efficient and it is worth to be optimized and extended, wike the production price can be in the range of:
5-25 Euro / MW thermal
25-125 Euro / MW electrical
To the considerations above, well known ecological advantages must be added.
In order to extend the results of this project,
additional funding is required, as well as a good
result dissemination. Thus, the dissemination was carried both internationally,
through a techincal paper presentation and
publication at the Powergen EUROPE 2008 Conference, and
nationally, at two conferences organised together
with our partners and other specialists (Modern Science and Energy SME 2007 and
2008) as well as through a newspaper article and on a film, dated September 08th,
2008, that can be accessed on the Internet site
https://www.fabricadebani.ro:80/news.aspx?iid=13189
An overall view of the entire installation is shown below:
|
