(83d) Economic Analysis for Emission-Free Power Generation By Simultaneous Employing Fuel Sources of Natural Gas, Coal, and Biomass

The rapid rise in global energy demand, combined with growing concern about GHG emissions, has presented the world with significant challenges. Traditional electricity generation from coal, oil, gas, and biomass contributes significantly to global atmospheric emissions. The Allam cycle is a recently developed power generation cycle with high efficiency and inherent free CO2 and NOx emissions. This paper proposes a novel industrial complex for electricity generation based on the Allam power cycle, which could use three types of fuels as feedstock at the same time: (i) coal, (ii) biomass, and (iii) natural gas. Coal and biomass can be gasified and converted into syngas, which can then be fed into the Allam cycle as the fuel gas. In the meantime, natural gas can be fed directly into the Allam cycle. This multi-fuel industrial complex's conceptual design can generate power and pipeline-ready CO2 at the same time. It was modeled and tested using a commercial simulator. The economic performances of various fuels have been evaluated and compared based on the design. Meanwhile, the optimal feed ratio selection for the three fuel sources under different market prices has been investigated in order to maximize the complex probability. The study has significant potential with salient economic, environmental, and societal benefits.