Techno-Economic Assessment of High-Safety and Cost-Effective Syngas Produced by O 2 -Enriched Air Gasification with 40–70% O 2 Purity

Siwen Zhang (), Haiming Gu, Jing Qian, Wioletta Raróg-Pilecka, Yuan Wang, Qijing Wu and Hao Zhao
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Siwen Zhang: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing 211167, China
Haiming Gu: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing 211167, China
Jing Qian: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing 211167, China
Wioletta Raróg-Pilecka: Department of Chemical Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, 00-664 Warsaw, Poland
Yuan Wang: College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Qijing Wu: School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
Hao Zhao: College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 8, 1-13

Abstract: To strike a better balance between gas quality and production cost of biomass-based syngas, a process for high-safety and cost-effective syngas production is designed and studied, which takes advantage of biomass O 2 -enriched air gasification with 40–70% O 2 purity and methanation synthesis. Based on the simulation data, the process is evaluated from techno-economic aspects, including syngas composition, higher heat value ( HHV ), upper and lower explosive limits ( UEL and LEL ), toxicity, unit production cost ( UPC ) and levelized cost of energy ( LCOE ). Five kinds of biomass are studied as feedstock. The effects of O 2 purity, methanation pressure, feedstock cost, and plant scale are determined, respectively. The results show that O 2 purity is an important parameter for technical performance, while methanation pressure is a minor parameter except for exergy efficiency. With respect to cost indicators, feedstock cost, and plant scale are crucial variables; by contrast, O 2 purity plays a relatively minor role. This process can generate non-toxic syngas containing 33.2–34.9 vol.% CH 4 . The UEL and LEL are about 34% and 12%, and the average explosive range is about 22%. The HHVs of syngas generated from five kinds of feedstock sit between 13.67–14.33 MJ/m 3 , and the exergy efficiency achieves 68.68%. The UPC varies between 0.05 $/Nm 3 and 0.27 $/Nm 3 , and the LCOE varies between 3.78 $/GJ and 18.28 $/GJ. When the plant scale is rational, the process shows strong competitiveness in either UPC or LCOE . The techno-economic results demonstrate that the studied process offers an alternative and sustainable pathway to supply gaseous fuel for low-income areas.

Keywords: O 2 -enriched air gasification; O 2 purity; explosive limit; heating value; exergy efficiency; levelized cost of energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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