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Biomass gasification process integration with Stirling engine, solid oxide fuel cell, and multi-effect distillation

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Abstract

Today, the use of a variety of energy with the approach of maximizing the efficiency of energy systems is inevitable regarding the increasing trend of energy demand in the world. Process integration reduces the number of equipment required and energy consumption. In this paper, an integrated structure is developed that includes a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), a Stirling engine, an organic Rankine cycle (ORC), and a multi-effect distillation using biomass gasification. This integrated structure produces 3103 kW net power, 2.773 kg s−1 desalinated water, and 3.908 kg s−1 hot water by receiving 1000 kg h−1 of biomass. Total electrical and total exergy efficiencies of the integrated system were obtained as 62.88% and 51.56%, respectively. The SOFC and ORC cycles energy efficiencies obtained 53.19 and 22.29%, respectively. The SOFC unit and ORC system exergy efficiencies were calculated by 58.09% and 50.77%, respectively. The largest contribution of the exergy destruction rate occurs in the solid oxide fuel cell and the heat exchangers, accounting for 37.31% and 30.43%. In the performed parametric analysis, the effect of moisture content of gasifier input fuel on the performance of the system was evaluated. One of the most important results is the increase of the total electrical efficiency of the system to 70.81% in case of the increase of moisture to 40 vol%. The maximum amount of net generated power and SOFC generated power occur at 25 vol% moisture content of gasifier input fuel.

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Abbreviations

SOFC:

Solid oxide fuel cell

SOEC:

Solid oxide electrolyzer cell

LNG:

Liquefied natural gas

CHHP:

Combined heat, hydrogen and power

SRK:

Soave–Redlich–Kwong equation

RKS-BM:

Boston Mathias alpha function

MED:

Multi-effect distillation

HHV:

High heating value

LHV:

Lower heating value

PFD:

Process flow diagram

C i :

Compressor i

HXi :

Heat exchangers i

CCi :

Combustion chamber i

R i :

Reformer i

T i :

Turbine i

Sepi :

Separator i

Regi :

Regeneration i

P i :

Pump i

\(E_{\text{O}}\) :

Overall empirical factor

\(F_{\text{O}}\) :

Overall Stirling engine powered system efficiency

\(E_{\text{S}}\) :

Thermodynamic efficiency

\(F_{\text{E}}\) :

Empirical factor

\(E_{\text{H}}\) :

Heat source efficiency

\(E_{\text{M}}\) :

Mechanical efficiency

\(K_{\text{C}}\) :

Stirling coefficient

\(E_{\text{BT}}\) :

Brake thermal efficiency

\(q_{\text{in}}\) :

Heat input or useful energy (W)

\(R\), \(R_{\text{u}}\) :

Gas constant, 8.314 (J mol−1 K−1)

\(n_{\text{e}}\) :

Moles number of electron transferred

\(F\) :

Faraday constant, 96488.5 (°C mol−1)

\(P_{\text{i}}^{*}\) :

Reaction site partial pressure of species i (bar)

\(P_{\text{i}}^{0}\) :

Bulk partial pressure of species i (bar)

\(j\) :

Current density (A cm−2)

\(j_{0}\) :

Exchange current density (A cm−2)

\(D_{\text{i}}^{\text{eff}}\) :

Effective diffusion coefficient of species i (cm2 s−1)

\(U_{\text{f}}\) :

Fuel utilization coefficient

\(T\) :

Temperature (K)

\(V_{\text{I}}\) :

Ideal voltage (V)

\(P_{{}}^{{}}\) :

Total pressure (bar)

\(P_{\text{i}}\) :

Partial pressure of species i (bar)

\(P_{0}\) :

Standard pressure, 1 (atm)

\(R_{\text{S}}\) :

Shift reaction rate (mol m−3 s−1)

\(R_{{{\text{H}}_{2} }}\) :

Reforming reaction rate

\(A_{\text{S}}\) :

Specific area (1/m)

\(K_{{}}\) :

Reaction rate constant (kmol kg cat s−1) (kPa)

\(A_{\text{cell}}\) :

Active area of each cell, (cm2)

\(K_{i}\) :

Equilibrium constants

\(G^{0}_{\text{T}}\) :

Gibbs free energy (kJ kmol−1)

\(\tilde{h}^{o}_{{{\text{f}},298}}\) :

Enthalpy of formation (kJ kg−1)

\(C_{\text{p}}\) :

Specific heat capacity at constant pressure (kJ kg−1)

\(g\) :

Gravitational acceleration (9.806 m s−2)

\(s_{0}\) :

Specific entropy at reference state (kJ kg−1 °C)

\(T_{0}\) :

Temperature of the dead state (K)

U :

Overall heat transfer coefficient (W m−2 °C)

s :

Entropy (kJ/kg °C)

\(\dot{W}\) :

Work rate (kW)

x i :

Mole fraction of component i

I :

Irreversibility (kW)

h :

Enthalpy (kJ kg−1)

G :

Gibbs free energy (kW)

ex:

Specific flow exergy (kJ kg−1)

\(\delta_{{}}\) :

Thickness (cm)

\(\gamma\) :

Pre-exponential factor of anode or cathode (A cm−2)

\(\gamma_{\text{i}}\) :

Activity coefficient of ith component

\(j_{0}\) :

Exchange current density (A cm−2)

\(\sigma_{{}}\) :

Ionic or electronic conductivity (1 Ω−1 cm−1)

\(\eta_{\text{act}}\) :

Activation loss (V)

\(\eta_{\text{ohmic}}\) :

Ohmic loss (V)

\(\eta_{\text{conc}}\) :

Concentration loss (V)

η :

Efficiency

\(\varepsilon\) :

Exergy efficiency

Σ:

Summation sign

\(\int {}\) :

Integration sign

Δ:

Difference operator

cat:

Cathode

an:

Anode

e:

Electron

act:

Activation

m:

H atoms substitution formula

O:

O atoms substitution formula

q:

N atoms substitution formula

r:

S atoms substitution formula

ch:

Chemical

ph:

Physical

in:

Inlet

Q:

Heat

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mechanical Engineering Faculty, Energy Conversion Group, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

    Armin Ebrahimi & Masoud Ziabasharhagh

  2. Faculty of Engineering Modern Technologies, Amol University of Special Modern Technologies, Amol, Iran

    Bahram Ghorbani

  3. Department of Environment of Islamic Republic of Iran (DOE), National Center for Climate Change, Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Javad Rahimi

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  1. Armin Ebrahimi
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  2. Bahram Ghorbani
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  3. Masoud Ziabasharhagh
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  4. Mohammad Javad Rahimi
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Contributions

BG: Supervision, Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Software, Validation, Original draft. AE: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing—original draft, Software, Validation. MZ: Conceptualization, Methodology, Methodology. MJR: Methodology, Investigation, Writing—original draft, Software, Validation.

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Correspondence to Bahram Ghorbani.

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Ebrahimi, A., Ghorbani, B., Ziabasharhagh, M. et al. Biomass gasification process integration with Stirling engine, solid oxide fuel cell, and multi-effect distillation. J Therm Anal Calorim 145, 1283–1302 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-020-10314-9

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