Modeling and Simulation of Corn Stover Gasifier and Micro-turbine for Power Generation

Abstract

This paper focuses on modeling the performance of a small-scale combined heat and power (CHP) plant fueled with corn stover pieces (CSP) as very potential biomass resource in Egypt. The developed power plant can be used to satisfy the heat and electricity needs. The proposed power plant performance is simulated using the professional Cycle-Tempo® software. The power plant is divided into three stages; the gasification unit (downdraft fixed bed gasifier and air supply system), gas cleaning and cooling units and the micro-turbine (MT) as an electrical generation unit. In the first stage, the CSP feedstock is converted to producer gas at atmospheric pressure with a reaction temperature about 1028.6 °C, using air as a gasifying agent. The efficiency of gasification process at a regulated air–biomass ratio of 1.5 kg/kg is 77.92% with calorific value (LHV) of 3.87 MJ/kg. Cleaning and cooling stage used to dispose the undesirable gas constitutes such as; tar, flying ash, and etc. The clean gas is passing through the MT as power generator for CHP applications with turbine inlet temperature of 850 °C. Ultimately, the simulation revealed that the CHP overall efficiency of this developed plant is 63.21% providing an electrical power of 94.81 kWel and thermal power of 187.55 kWth.