Hybrid Dual-Fuel Combined Cycles: General Performance Analysis

The hybrid dual-fuel combined cycle concept is a promising technology for increasing the energy utilization of low-grade (solid) fuels. Advantages such as enhanced electrical efficiency, favorable economics, and relative ease of construction and operation have been pointed out by various authors in previous studies. The present investigation aims to assess the performance of natural gas and coal- or biomass-fired hybrid combined cycles, with a gas turbine as topping cycle and a steam boiler as bottoming cycle. A parametric analysis considers the impact of the natural gas/solid fuel energy ratio on the electrical efficiency of various hybrid system configurations. Results show that significant performance improvements (in the order of several percentage points in electrical efficiency) can be achieved by these hybrid configurations when compared to the reference (two independent, single-fuel power plants at the given scales). In large-scale power plants with coal-fired bottoming cycle, efficiencies continuously rise as the share of natural gas fuel is increased up to the cycle integration limits, while an optimum can be seen for the small-scale biomass-fired bottoming cycles (with modest steam parameters) at a certain share of natural gas fuel input.