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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS

VOL. 39, 2014

A publication of

The Italian Association

of Chemical Engineering

www.aidic.it/cet
Guest Editors: Petar Sabev Varbanov, Jiří Jaromír Klemeš, Peng Yen Liew, Jun Yow Yong

ISBN 978-88-95608-30-3; ISSN 2283-9216 DOI: 10.3303/CET1439063

Please cite this article as: Holmgren K.M., Berntsson T.S., Andersson E., Rydberg T., 2014, Heat recovery aspects of

importance for the product mix and GHG emission reductions in a Bio-SNG system, Chemical Engineering Transactions,

39, 373-378 DOI:10.3303/CET1439063

373

Heat Recovery Aspects of Importance for the Product Mix

and GHG Emission Reductions in a Bio-SNG System

Kristina M. Holmgren*
a
, Thore S. Berntsson

b
, Eva Andersson

c
, Tomas Rydberg

a
IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute Ltd, Box 26031, SE-40014 Gothenburg, Sweden

b
Chalmers University of Technology, Dep. Energy and Environment, Div. Heat and Power Technology, SE-412 96

Gothenburg, Sweden.
c
CIT Industriell Energi AB, Chalmers Teknikpark, SE-412 88 Gothenburg, Sweden

kristina.holmgren@ivl.se

This paper presents the impact of adjusted operating parameters (superheating temperature and

backpressure or condensing mode) for the heat recovery steam cycle (HRSC) by external conditions on

the product mix (SNG; power and heat) in a commercial scale gasification-based bio-SNG (biomass

derived synthetic natural gas) production system. The GHG reduction potentials for a case with a

condensing HRSC and for a case with the HRSC in backpressure mode producing heat for CO2 separation

of the flue gases are evaluated. Pinch technology was used to identify the potential for heat recovery and

process integration. Small changes in the operational parameters of the HRSC can result in significant

changes of the conversion efficiencies of heat and power. With an HRSC in back-pressure mode, reducing

the power production by 4 MW compared to the condensing case, it is possible to produce ~60 MW of heat

for district heating. This study shows that approximately one third of the carbon input to the gasifier ends

up in the SNG, whereas one third is separated prior to methanation and one third is emitted as CO2 in the

flue gases from the combustor of the indirect gasifier. If infrastructure for CO2 storage is available, and

CO2 separated from the process and from the flue gases is stored, the GHG emission reductions from the

bio-SNG system can be doubled compared to a case without CO2 storage possibility.

1. Introduction

In this study, the impact of adjusted operating parameters for the heat recovery steam cycle (HRSC) by

external conditions on the product mix (i.e. SNG, power and heat) for a gasification-based bio-SNG

production plant is investigated. The product mix, described by partial conversion efficiencies of the

products (biomass to SNG, power and heat respectively) is a key factor for the further analysis of the

environmental impact and also for the economic performance of the system. Focus in this study is on how

operating parameters, e.g. superheating temperature, condensing or backpressure mode and size of the

HRSC is dependent on external factors, such as the presence of heat sinks (e.g. district heating networks

or industrial processes) and whether the biomass is dried on or off-site. Many previous studies of bio-SNG

systems have focused on overall efficiencies and on the impact of different technology choices for the

main processes in the SNG production chain. An overview of process configurations and efficiencies is

given by Gassner and Maréchal (2012). Gerber et al. (2011) concluded that the reduction of the

environmental impact cannot be translated directly by an increase of process efficiency for processes

producing several products. This is logical since the different products replace services with different

environmental burdens. Knowledge of how different parameters impact the product mix is important for

identifying resource efficient systems.

This study investigates how the on-site energy balance is impacted by importing dry biomass (which can

be assumed to be transported longer distances, for instance by ship and hence, reducing the dependency

on the local biomass resource). Future studies should also analyse how the environmental burden is

impacted by long distance transportation and technology and resource use for off-site biomass drying.

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In a study of process design for systems cogenerating bio-SNG, heat and power Gassner and Maréchal

(2012), concluded that the steam turbine inlet temperatures of the HRSC is positively correlated with

process efficiency and cost, but other operating conditions of the steam cycle need to be optimised for

each process configuration and is dependent on whether or not excess heat can be delivered to a district

heating net. In the current study the impact on the partial conversion efficiencies of using some of the

produced SNG for superheating the steam in the HRSC was investigated. Two uses of excess heat are

considered in this study; one for district heating and one for an industrial process. Previous studies have

not differentiated between these uses of the excess heat, but this is important since there will be

differences in the number of operational hours, the environmental burden of the replaced services and the

localisation of the bio-SNG plant. Steubing et al. (2011) concluded that the efficient use of process heat is

crucial for the GHG performance of gasification based bio-SNG systems and Steubing et al. (2014)

concluded that for these systems the most important driver of the environmental performance is the

substitution of non-renewable energy. CO2 sequestration was not included in their evaluation. The current

study evaluates the GHG emission reduction potential for two configurations with on-site biomass drying;

one with a condensing HRSC and one where the backpressure produced heat is used for CO2 separation

from the flue gases of the combustor in the indirect gasifier. A single configuration, based on the work of

Heyne et al. (2011), of a tentative commercial scale (430 MW th biomass input) SNG-process is used for

the evaluations in this study.

2. Methodology

2.1 Partial conversion efficiencies
Pinch technology and specifically split GCCs, as described by e.g. Smith (2005), was used for analysing

the excess heat of the bio-SNG process and the size and steam data for the heat recovery steam cycle.

The product mix of the SNG-production system is described by the partial conversion efficiencies

( ) for the products (pi) (i.e. SNG, power and useful heat), defined according to Equation 1,

where biomass is the input (MWLHV):

(1)

2.2 Greenhouse gas emission reductions
A consequential LCA methodology with system expansion was used for estimating the GHG emission

reductions; see Holmgren et al., (2014) for a thorough description of the methodology. In this study the

accomplished reductions are presented as the sum of three factors, described by Equations 2-4:

Emission reductions by substitution = SNG *Esubst - B * EB (2)

where SNG is the amount of produced SNG (MWh y
-1

) and Esubst is the emission factor (kg CO2 eq. MWh
-1

)

for the substituted fuel (1 MWhSNG replaces 1 MWhfuel); B is the amount of biomass (MWh y
-1

) needed to

produce the SNG and EB is the emission factor for the biomass (kg CO2 eq. MWh
-1

Emission reductions of net power production= P*Eref power (3)

Where P is the net power production (MWh y
-1

) and Eref power is the emission factor for the reference power

production technology.

Emission reductions of CO2 storage = CO2 stored – Pcompression* Eref power (4)

Where CO2 stored is the amount of stored CO2 and Pcompression is the amount of power needed for

compressing the separated CO2 to storage conditions.

3. The SNG production system and data for calculations

The SNG production system is assumed to be located at an industrial site (in Gothenburg) with a natural

gas grid and a district heating network or industry with low pressure steam demand nearby.

3.1 The SNG process
The analysis in this study is based on the process configuration, Figure 1, and modeling by Heyne et al.

(2011) The process was adjusted to a stand-alone gasification unit, scaled to 430 MWth biomass input at

50 % moisture content and the final pressure of the SNG was set to 30 bar. The char produced in the

375

gasifier is used in the combustor to drive the gasification process. The biomass is dried to 20 % moisture

content by a steam dryer with a heat demand of 802 kJ kg
-1

H2O evaporated at 180 °C and a power
demand of 29 kJel kg

-1
H2O evaporated based on Heyne et al. (2011).

3.2 The heat recovery steam cycle
A heat recovery steam cycle with four pressure levels was used in this study. The different cases of

operational parameters for the HRSC are presented in Table 1. Backpressure at 0.95 bar represents heat

delivery to a district heating net (90/45 °C), whereas 2.5 bar represents utilisation in an industrial process.

The heat exchanging with syngas for superheating steam was limited to a temperature of 450 °C since

higher temperatures will damage the heat exchangers (Martelli et al., 2012). In Case S4 some of the SNG

was used for additional superheating, thereby allowing for higher steam data. The tolerable amount of

water at turbine outlet was set to 12 %. The number of annual operational hours was set to 8,000 for the

SNG and power production and 8,000 or 5,500 for the heat delivery to the district heating net, representing

base load or middle load production.

3.3 The GHG emission reductions
The impact of the differences in product mix on the GHG emission reduction potential is illustrated through

evaluation of two cases; S1 and S3. In Case S1 the HRSC is operated in condensing mode maximizing

the net power production, whereas in Case S3 the backpressure heat is used for separating the CO2 from

the flue gases of the combustor. The fuel emission factors used in the GHG emission evaluation were;

21.8 kg CO2 eq MWh
-1

for forest residues, based on the scenario of wood

Figure 1: Flow sheet of biomass gasification based SNG production and final upgrading to grid quality

Table 1: Case description

Case Turbine inlet data (T, P) Mode Biomass drying

450 °C, 60 bar Condensing

Process integrated steam

drying

S2 450 °C, 60 bar Backpressure 0.95 bar,

S3 450 °C, 60 bar Backpressure 2.5 bar

S4 600 °C, 115 bar Condensing

O1 450 °C, 60 bar Condensing
Off-site drying

O2 450 °C, 60 bar Backpressure 0.95 bar

chips in southern Sweden by Lindholm et al. (2010b) for soil carbon impact, and Lindholm et al. (2010a)

for production and distribution (with an updated transportation distance to 100 km) and Gode et al. (2011)

for combustion; 285.8 kg CO2 eq. MWh
-1

for gasoline and 249.5 kg CO2 eq. MWh
-1

for natural gas based on

Gode et al. (2011). The emission factors used for the reference power production were: 925 kg CO2 eq.

MWhel
-1

for coal condensing power without CCS and 295 kg CO2 eq. MWhel
-1

with CCS and 417 kg CO2 eq.

MWhel
-1

for NGCC production based on Axelsson and Pettersson (2014). All emission factors have been

updated with the GWP100 factors from IPCC, (2007). The CO2 sent for storage is pressurized to 75 bar and

the power demand for compression is 0.11 MWh kton
-1

CO2 based on Heyne and Harvey (2014).

Emissions during transport or storage of the CO2 were not considered. The MEA absorption unit employed

for the flue gas separation has the same specific heat demand, 3.7 MJ kg
-1

CO2 at 115 °C, as the unit used

in the syngas section, but with a separation efficiency of 90 % instead of 95 % due to the lower CO2

concentration in the flue gases.

4. Results

The pinch analyses, Figure 2, show that there is a significant difference in high temperature excess heat,

78 MW and 87 MW for the cases of onsite and off-site biomass drying respectively. This increases the

power production in the HRSC by 5.4 MW (15 %) compared to the steam drying case (Case S1 and O1 in

Figure 3). By using 38 MW of the SNG (total production 298 MW) for additional superheating, the power

376

production can be increased by over 50 % (S1 and S4 in Figure 3), corresponding to a marginal power

production efficiency of 55 %. With only a slight reduction, 4 MW, in power production ~ 60 MW of heat for

district heating can be produced (which means either 350 or 500 GWh depending on whether it is middle

load or base load production).

In the cases with off-site biomass drying (O1 and O2) the energy demand for drying was ignored. This is

justified by the assumption that the biomass is dried by excess heat with no alternative use.

Figure 2: Left; split GCC for the SNG process (without biomass drying) and an HRSC. Right: split GCC for

the SNG process with steam drying. Extra heat is used for superheating the steam in the HRSC

Figure 3: Conversion efficiencies for products in the SNG production system for cases with different

operating parameters of the HRSC and biomass drying alternatives

The analysis shows that one third of the carbon input to the gasifier ends up in the SNG (Table 2). In Case

S3 where the backpressure is at a higher level, the available heat 48 MW (Figure 3), matches the demand

(46 MW at 115 °C) for separating the CO2 from the flue gases well. Figure 4 shows the contribution to

reduced GHG emissions by product for Case S3 (with) and Case S1 (without CO2 storage). Total GHG

emission reductions differ only slightly with reference power production technology, mainly because the

net power production in each case is small. In the case without CO2 storage, the main contribution to

reduced GHG emissions is provided by the SNG substituting fossil fuels. CO2 storage has the potential to

double the GHG emission reduction of the system. Systems with CO2 storage show GHG reductions of the

same magnitude as for biomass replacing coal in condensing coal power plants.

5. Discussion and conclusions

The electricity production potential of the HRSC is in line with the estimate for a similar system given by

Heyne et al. (2010) based on Carnot representation. The district heating production potential of ~60 MW

identified for the system in this study could be compared to the base load of a large district heating sys tem

such as at the suggested localisation in Gothenburg, which has a summer time (June-August) base load

production of ~70-120 MW. If the excess heat from the gasification system cannot outcompete other base

load production units, industrial use of the excess heat will mean a higher number of annual delivery hours

and even if requiring higher temperatures (as in our case) the total amount of delivered heat will be higher.

This will result in higher revenues and most likely also greater reduction in GHG emissions since industries

importing the steam will save fuel. The carbon analysis in this study shows a higher amount of input

carbon ending up in the flue gases (29 %) compared to the results by Carbo et al. (2011) (20 %) in their

analysis of a 500 MWth BioSNG plant. Storage of separated CO2 can, under the conditions of this study,

377

double the GHG emission reductions from the bio-SNG production systems. However, separating the CO2

from the flue gases will require additional investments in equipment whereas the CO2 separation from the

process stream is necessary in any case. From a systems perspective it will be less important for the total

GHG reductions if the SNG replaces natural gas or gasoline when CO2 from the system can be stored.

Currently there is no infra-

Table 2: Distribution of carbon in the gasification system products (percentage of total input)

Carbon in

SNG-product

Carbon in flue

gases

Carbon in separated CO2
before methanation

Carbon lost in scrubber or

gas-cleaning membranes

34.8 % 29.4 % 35.4 % 0.5 %

Figure 4: The GHG emission reductions with and without storage of separated CO2 and for different

reference power production technologies and fuels substituted by the SNG. The rightmost staple displays

the reduction potential for using the biomass to replace coal in a condensing power plant

structure for CO2 storage but locating the bio-SNG plant in an industrial cluster together with other large

sources of CO2 emissions increases the potential for future investments in such infrastructure.

Future studies should evaluate the GHG emission impact and economy of all the investigated

configurations to reveal the importance of the surrounding system in terms of heat sinks, infrastructure for

biomass transportation and drying, CO2 transportation and storage etc. Such analysis will improve the

knowledge of conditions for appropriate localisation of large scale biomass gasification systems.

Acknowledgement

This work was financed by the Swedish Energy Agency, the Swedish EPA, the Swedish Research Council

Formas, the Research Foundation of Göteborg Energi, Preem, E.ON Gasification Development Ltd and

Perstorp Oxo.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2014.03.058