AN ADVANCED INTEGRATED BIOMASS GASIFICATION AND MOLTEN FUEL-CELL POWER-SYSTEM

Biomass has recently received considerable attention as a potential su bstitute for fossil fuels in electric power production. Renewable biom ass crops, industrial wood residues, and municipal wastes as fuels for production of electricity allow substantial reduction of environmenta l impact. High reactivity of biomass makes it relatively easy to conve rt solid feedstocks into gaseous fuel for subsequent use in a power cy cle. So far most of the studies were focused on investigating performa nce and economics of biomass gasifiction-gas turbine systems. A genera l conclusion resulting from these studies is that the combination of b iomass gasifiers, hot gas cleanup systems, and advanced gas turbines i s promising for cost competitive electric power generation [1,2]. In t his paper another concept of biomass fueled power systems is considere d, namely biomass gasification with a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC ). Comparison between two concepts is made in terms of efficiency, fea sibility, and process requirements. As an example of such a system, a highly efficient novel power cycle consisting of the Battelle gasifica tion process,a molten carbonate fuel cell, and a steam turbine is intr oduced. The calculated efficiency is around 53%, which exceeds efficie ncies of traditional designs [1,3] considerably. Finally, an economic analysis and electricity cost projection are performed for a power pla nt consuming 2000 tons of biomass per day. Results are compared with t hose for more traditional integrated biomass gasification/gas turbine systems and for coal fueled cycles. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Sci ence Ltd. All rights reserved.