Analysis of Biomass Integrated Gasification Fuel Cell Plants in Industrial CHP Applications

The gasification of biomass wastes deriving from certain industrial processes is an interesting option for cogenerating heat and power. The utilization of the syngas in a high temperature fuel cell could lead to the improvement of electrical efficiency in comparison with traditional CHP plants. In this paper the performance of various Biomass Integrated Gasification Fuel Cell (BIGFC) plants are investigated. In particular an atmospheric down-draft gasifier has been considered for syngas production. The fuel cell used for power generation is a 250 kW solid oxide fuel cell, which has been simulated through a zero-dimensional steady-state model and integrated in Aspen Plus® software for evaluating the performance of the entire plant. Various system lay-outs have been investigated to analyze the effect on plant efficiency of the following parameters: (i) gasification air pre-heating; (ii) use of 90% pure oxygen for gasification; (iii) use of enriched air (55% O₂) for gasification; (iv) recirculation of anodic gas flow; (v) installation of a SOFC/GT hybrid cycle for power production. BIGFC plants show an electrical efficiency in the range 20–27%, and a thermal efficiency of 39–59%. If a SOFC/GT hybrid cycle is installed electrical efficiency grows up to 39%.