The Feasibility of Palm-Based Biomass Co-Firing and Different Oxygen Carriers to Enhance the Performance of Coal-Based IGCC Power Plant

The constantly growing global energy demand for energy is still produced from fossil fuels. Even with the rise in the global awareness about the negative effects non-renewable resources of energy, the abundance and the low cost of coal still ensures the existence of coal-fired power plants.

This research investigates the potential of retrofitting coal-based IGCC power plants with palm-based biomass co-firing and chemical looping combustion (CLC) carbon capture for zero carbon emissions. The investigated biomass are palm coir, palm empty bunch and palm leaflets. The effect of different biomass co-firing and CLC oxygen carriers on the techno-economic performance of coal-based IGCC power plants was modelled and simulated using Aspen Plus software.

The results showed that the use of iron oxide as an oxygen carrier resulted in better performance than nickel oxide in terms of total plant efficiency, total plant energy output and carbon specific emissions. However, to achieve zero carbon emissions, the flow rate of the oxygen carriers was 15 times the flow rate of the feed.

Palm coir co-firing resulted in better performance regardless of the used oxygen carrier. However, the performance has diminished when palm empty bunch and palm leaflets co-firing were used. The presence of particulate matter results in downstream equipment fouling and hence, lowering the overall power plant efficiency. This issue has been addressed by adding cyclones for syngas cleaning.

The use of CLC for carbon capture has increased the cost of power generation depending on oxygen carrier type. The cost has increased by 32% and by 45% when iron oxide and nickel oxide were used, respectively. However, there was no clear trend to indicate if increasing biomass percentage will increase or decrease the cost of power generation. Unfortunately, the lowest cost was greater than actual market trading prices. Therefore, currently no clear economic drive for developing coal and biomass co-firing IGCC power plants with CLC carbon capture technology. Even though, a satisfactory co-firing IGCC power plant with suitable decarbonisation scenario might be economically feasible, depending on a trade-off between the decarbonisation degree and CO₂ specific emissions.