An Indirectly Fired Gas Turbine Cogeneration Plant Utilizing Sawdust as a Fuel

A technical and economic assessment of an indirectly fired gas turbine cogeneration system is presented. The plant is designed for use in a sawmill, burning sawdust to generate both electricity and process heat to dry the lumber. After being dried, the sawdust is burned in a specially designed combustor which incorporates both radiant and convective heat transfer sections to generate a supply of air heated to 760 C (1400). This hot air drives the gas turbine and then the exhaust stream is utilized as a heat source for drying lumber in the dry-kilns. A materials and energy balance is presented which shows that there is more than enough sawdust available in a typical sawmill to supply all of the process heat requirements and to generate most of the electricity required to operate the mill machinery. This site-specific feasibility study indicates that an indirectly-fired gas turbine cogeneration system should be both technically and economically viable for application in a sawmill producing dried softwood lumber.