Investigation of a solar-biomass gasification system with the production of methanol and electricity: Thermodynamic, economic and off-design operation

Zhang Bai, Qibin Liu, Liang Gong and Jing Lei

Applied Energy, 2019, vol. 243, issue C, 101 pages

Abstract: A new solar-biomass gasification polygeneration system is developed to efficiently utilize renewable energy in this work, with the production of liquid fuel methanol and electricity. In the system, the collected high-temperature concentrated solar energy with a beam-down optical configuration is used to drive biomass gasification, the cotton stalk is selected as feedstock, and the produced syngas is fed into the reactor for methanol synthesis. The un-reacted syngas and the system waste heat are efficiently utilized via the combined cycle to generate electricity. The designed biomass consumption rate and power capacities are 100 ktons/year and 32.7 MWe, respectively. The thermodynamic and economic performances of this polygeneration system are investigated, and the on-design energy efficiency and the exergy efficiency of the system reach to 51.89% and 51.23%, respectively. According to the off-design evaluation within a typical year, the annual production of methanol and electricity are 54.80 ktons and 50.85 GW·h, respectively. Compared with the reference system which consists of a typical methanol synthesis system with biomass-steam gasification and a solar tower power generation system, the annual averaged efficiency of the proposed solar-biomass polygeneration system is increased to 48.35% from 41.09% of the reference system, and the monthly averaged efficiency is varying in the range of 46.65%–49.05%. In addition, the specific biomass consumption rate is reduced by 27.33%, and the levelized cost of methanol is 361.88 $/ton with reasonable economic competitiveness. The polygeneration system achieves competitive thermodynamic and economic potential, and provides an alternative and promising way for efficiently utilizing abundant solar energy and biomass resources.

Keywords: Solar energy; Biomass gasification; Polygeneration system; Off-design evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.03.132

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