Integration of a municipal solid waste gasification plant with solid oxide fuel cell and gas turbine

Abstract

An interesting source of producing energy with low pollutants emission and reduced environmental impact are the biomasses; particularly using Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) as fuel, can be a competitive solution not only to produce energy with negligible costs but also to decrease the storage in landfills. A Municipal Solid Waste Gasification Plant Integrated with Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) and Gas Turbine (GT) has been studied and the plant is called IGSG (Integrated Gasification SOFC and GT). Gasification plant is fed by MSW to produce syngas by which the anode side of an SOFC is fed wherein it reacts with air and produces electricity. The exhausted gases out of the SOFC enter a burner for further fuel combusting and finally the off-gases are sent to a gas turbine to produce additional electricity. Different plant configurations have been studied and the best one found to be a regenerative gas turbine. Under optimized condition, the thermodynamic efficiency of 52% is achieved. Variations of the most critical parameters have been studied and analyzed to evaluate plant features and find out an optimized configuration.