Exergoeconomic study of the performance of a generation system in a non-interconnected zone in Colombia using syngas in an internal combustion engine with energy accumulation

Abstract

The performance of two configurations for a generation system using syngas an internal combustion engine for a community of the Colombian Orinoquia not interconnected to the national grid has been studied, based on exergy and exergoeconomics analyzes. In each configuration, the accumulation of energy has been included. In configuration 1 there is an accumulation in a tank and in configuration 2 there is accumulation with batteries. The study was developed based on the demand curve for electricity of that community. In Colombia, non-interconnected zones represent 52% of the territory, which includes 90 municipalities, with a population of about 1,400,000 people. The implementation of non-conventional energies improves the living conditions of these populations where the provision of the service is deficient, this also helps to diversify the country’s energy matrix. In these areas, there is a biomass potential with the common cane, which can be used as an energy crop. This work is based on the knowledge of the quantity and composition of syngas produced in gasification of this biomass to determine the performance of the internal combustion engine and the accumulation system. The results show that the alternative in which there is a battery accumulation has a cost that oscillates between 0.35 and 0.31 USD / kWh for the hours of minimum and maximum consumption respectively. In the configuration with tank accumulation, the cost is between 0.47 and 0.31 USD / kWh also for minimum and maximum consumption hours respectively. The greater value obtained in this second configuration is due to the greater irreversibilities generated by the operation at a partial load of the engine, which does not happen in the storage configuration with batteries, where the motor runs at full load during the hours of consumption. Energy storage battery has an average cost of 3 USD / kWh too high compared to the accumulation tank, where the cost of stored energy is on average 0.13 USD / kWh.