Co-firing: An exergoenvironmental analysis applied to power plants modified for burning coal and rice straw

Álvaro Restrepo and Edson Bazzo

Renewable Energy, 2016, vol. 91, issue C, 107-119

Abstract: An exergy approach to environmental impacts is proposed as an exergoenvironmental analysis methodology to be applied in a power plants modified for burning in a co-firing process, including external impacts originated from the routes of the coal and the biomass. A new Global Greenhouse Gases (iGHGGlobal) index is also presented in order to compare different co-firing scenarios. The methodology took into account the global warming impact category using the Global Warming Potential (GWP) index. The operating details were obtained from an existing 50 MWe PC power plant. Two scenarios were analyzed: (A) burning only pulverized coal; and (B) burning pulverized coal and rice straw in a co-firing process. The results showed a total of exergoenvironmental impact of 16.43 kg CO2-eq/s for scenario A and 12.3 kg CO2-eq/s for scenario B, that is, around 25.13% lower. In relation with the exergoenvironmental performance variables, the steam generator showed the highest environmental impact associated with the exergy destruction (B˙D,k). Also, when scenario B was considered, the relative difference of specific environmental impact (rb,k) shows an important reduction around 30% lower in the steam generator. The (iGHGGlobal) index indicated values of 0.5 to scenario A and 0.564 to the scenario B.

Keywords: Co-firing process; Exergoenvironmental analysis; PC power plant; Life cycle assessment; Rice straw (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148116300489
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:91:y:2016:i:c:p:107-119

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2016.01.048

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().