Thermodynamic and economic effectiveness of a CHP unit with piston engine fueled with gas from biomass gasification

This paper presents the results of a thermodynamic and economic analysis concerning the use of gas from gasification of biomass in a cogeneration system with an internal combustion piston engine, working for the needs of a district heating network, with power of 1.5 MW in biomass supplied. The data on the gas generation and purification process were taken from real experiments conducted on a research installation with a fixed bed gasifier at the Institute for Chemical Processing of Coal in Zabrze. Electricity and heat generation eciency and electric and thermal power of the system were primarily used as indicators of the thermodynamic evaluation. The economic analysis was carried out using discount methods, taking into account the existence of support mechanisms in the form of the colorful certificates. A sensitivity analysis of evaluation indices to the change of selected characteristics was performed.