Session: 4.1.1 - Renewable Energy Systems

Paper Number: 108621

108621 - Performance of Biomass and Waste Coal Co-Fired Power Generation 

Climate change is one of the major global challenges. To tackle the challenges of the climate change, the United States has set crucial goals of carbon-emission free electricity by 2035 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. In 2021, the net electricity production from utility-scale power plants in the United States was approximately 4116 billion kWh i.e., 4.1 trillion kWh [EIA, 2021]. The percentage share of electricity generation is: coal (25.8%), natural gas (31.6%), nuclear (22.2%), and renewables (20.4%) which showed that approximately 60% of the US total electricity is produced from fossil fuels [ Energy Flow Charts, LLNL, 2022]. The burning of fossil fuels releases significant amounts of greenhouse gas (GHG), primarily CO₂ emissions, leading to global warming. The electricity sector contributes about 29% of the total GHG emissions in the United States. Hence, the global average atmospheric CO₂ concentration has reached a new record high of 418 ppm [NASA, 2022].

Coal is one of major source of electricity production in the US. However, coal mining leads to release of GHG emissions. On the other hands, the United States is producing approximately 100 million tons of bituminous coal refuse which is about 320 lbs for every ton of coal sold [Coal Research Bureau, 1979]. Coal refuse fired power generation also releases significant GHG emissions. On the other hand, biomass-based heat and power generation power plants are growing rapidly due to lowering the carbon footprint and potentially meet the net zero-carbon goal. Biomass feedstocks derive from agricultural crop residues, dedicated energy crops, forestry residues, wood-processing residues, algae, sorted municipal solid wastes, and many other sources. In 2021, biomass provided approximately 4.5% of the United States' total energy, the equivalent of 4.2 quadrillion British thermal units (BTUs) [Energy Flow Charts, LLNL, 2022 and EIA, 2022]. Overall, biomass could be co-gasified with coal refuse to overcome GHG emissions.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of waste coal and biomass co-fired power generation. The performance of the 100 MW capacity co-fired power plants will be evaluated using a commercial software. The selected feedstocks are anthracite waste coal and pine biomass. The performance of co-fired plant will be analyzed at coal refuse and biomass cofiring ratios such as 0:100, 20:80, 40:60, 60:40, 80:20, 100:0. Performance parameters in terms of heat and mass balances diagrams (HMBDs) including the plant's performance parameters such as power output and net heat rate will be presented. HMBDs will also provide mass balance of biomass and coal refuse, and auxiliary power consumption of the plant.

Presenting Author: Prakash Bhoi Georgia Southern University

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Prakash Bhoi is serving as an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering Department at Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, USA. Dr. Bhoi received his PhD degree in Biosystems Engineering at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA. He has more than 15 years of experience in thermochemical conversion of biomass, waste plastics and MSW for producing carbon-neutral hydrogen, syngas, biofuel, biopower and value-added bio-products. His specific areas of research are focused on gasification, catalytic fast pyrolysis, carbon-neutral power and hydrogen production, syngas-fired internal combustion (IC) engines, burners and combustion chambers, wet scrubbing of tars and modeling of thermochemical conversion technologies. He has published more than 25 peer reviewed journal papers and presented over 35 oral/poster presentations at international conferences. He is currently serving as a Guest Editor to lead a special issue for Sustainability journal (IF: 3.251) of MDPI publisher.