A System-Level Simulation Model of Poly-Generation Plant Based on Gasification Technology With Methanol and Power Generation Available to Purchase

This study presents a system-level simulation model with the commercial chemical process simulator, Pro/II^® V8.1.1, for poly-generation applications, based on gasification technology. The feedstock is coal and the products are electricity and methanol. There are five major blocks in the simulated polygeneration plant, i.e. air separation unit (ASU), gasification unit, gas clean-up unit, combined cycle, and methanol synthetic unit. The first four blocks can be combined for electricity generation, i.e. integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC). The study performs two analyses of basic case and polygeneration. The basic case is the benchmark case which is verified with the reference data from United States Environment Protection Agency. The poly-generation case is based on the basic case model, and to simulate a feasible case with actual parameters in Taiwan. The simulated outcome shows that the power output is 262.35 MW and the methanol production is 1,768.8 ton per day. The gross and net efficiency (HHV) of the integrated gasification poly-generation case are 52.75% and 46.42%, respectively. The latter is higher than the counterpart of traditional IGCC plants by over 4% points. In conclusion, integrated gasification poly-generation process provides an alternative choice to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels, especially crude oil, in Taiwan.