Optimal design and economic analysis of a hybrid process of municipal solid waste plasma gasification, thermophotovoltaic power generation and hydrogen/liquid fuel production

Abstract

In this paper, an integrated process of hydrogen, methanol and electricity production from municipal solid waste biomass feed is investigated and analyzed. Also, the computational model for recovering the energy from the internal radiation of the combustion chamber in a thermophotovoltaic system is developed. The main parameters in the thermophotovoltaic modeling system are open circuit voltage, short circuit current density and cell density coefficient. These parameters are considered as a function of emitter temperature, cell temperature, the interval between cell and emitter, spectral response and the cell energy gap. After designing the integrated process, efficiency of the overall proposed hybrid system is calculated about 68.17% which is increased approximately 3.5% by heat recovery from the combustion chamber of thermophotovoltaic system. The results showed that increasing the temperature of the WGS reactor has a negative impact on the overall productivity of the system. Also increasing the rate of inlet plasma air decreases H2/CO ratio of the synthesized gas, which accordingly decreases the methanol production rate. Based on the economic analysis results in a period of 2 years and 9 months the total investment cost is returned to the investor.