Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 111126

www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Predicting black liquor gasication combined cycle powerhouse performance accounting for o-design gas turbine operation
Simon Harvey
a b

a,*

, Bruno Facchini

Heat and Power Technology Group, Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Science, Chalmers University of Technology, 41296 G oteborg, Sweden  degli Studi di Firenze, Via S. Marta 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy Dipartimento di Energetica Sergio Stecco, Universita Received 15 September 2002; accepted 1 July 2003

Abstract Estimating potential electric power generation in the pulping industry by implementing black liquor gasication combined cycle (BLGCC) technology is an important issue, given the anticipated future demand for green electricity. Full-scale BLGCC technology has not yet been commercially demonstrated. Therefore, performance studies of this technology require the use of computer simulation tools, with the pertaining challenge of simulating gas turbine operation on gasied black liquor fuel. Exact future plant size is usually unknown; therefore many studies adopt a simplied model assuming an engine sized to match the available fuel stream, with generic characteristics representative of a given class of engine. The performance of a xed size engine operating at o-design conditions on low caloric value fuel is in most cases lower. This work attempts to quantify the resulting dierence between performance estimates based on these two assumptions. The calculations are performed for a BLGCC powerhouse integrated with the Swedish KAM reference pulp mill, for which the biofuel (bark and black liquor) available on-site is more than sucient to satisfy the mill steam demand. The surplus can therefore be used for additional power generation, which however implies the use of low eciency condensing steam turbine units. Alternatively, surplus biofuel can be exported for use elsewhere. This study investigates both of these options. 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +46-31-7728531; fax: +46-31-821928. E-mail address: simon.harvey@hpt.chalmers.se (S. Harvey).

1359-4311/$ - see front matter 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S1359-4311(03)00217-5

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Nomenclature Symbols and abbreviations ADt air dried tonne AGR acid gas removal ASU air separation unit BL black liquor BLG black liquor gasication BLGCC black liquor gasication combined cycle CC combustion chamber CHP combined heat and power GT gas turbine HP high pressure HRSG heat recovery steam generator IGV inlet guide vane IP intermediate pressure LHV lower heating value LLP very low pressure LP low pressure MP medium pressure plant net power PNet gas turbine power PGT steam turbine power PST auxiliaries power consumption Paux Qfuel;in fuel heat supply rate w specic work WHB waste heat boiler

1. Introduction The pulp and paper industry consumes large quantities of biomass as a process feedstock. The chemical (kraft) pulp process generates black liquor as a by-product, which is thereafter treated to recover both cooking chemicals and energy. The black liquor stream energy content is sucient to cover an energy-ecient pulp mills steam demand, thus surplus fuel can be exported or used for electric power cogeneration. The pulping industry has traditionally used Tomlinson boiler technology for black liquor energy and chemical recovery. Black liquor combustion releases heat used to raise steam to feed a back-pressure steam turbine CHP system that provides the mill with process steam and cogenerated electric power. Major drawbacks include the risk of explosion, and the low electric power generation eciency. Black liquor can also be gasied. The resulting product gas is cleaned and red in a gas turbine combined cycle CHP unit. Advantages include increased electric power output, operational safety, and reduced emissions. The potential for increased electric power

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output is of clear interest, given the current interest for electric power based on renewable fuel sources. Furthermore, as the pulping process itself becomes more energy ecient, more of the black liquor energy content is available for electric power generation. A number of energy systems studies (e.g. [15]) have focussed on the potential for cogeneration of electric power in the pulping industry using BLGCC technology. In many of these studies, however, the assumed gas turbine model reects generic performance data for F-class engines, not reecting the real features of a specic unit. Plant economics and energy policy decisions are clearly dependent on good estimates of plant performance, often obtained using power plant simulation tools. Assessing the accuracy of BLGCC powerhouse performance estimations is thus the main goal of this paper. Specic emphasis is placed on estimation of the gas turbine power output operating at o-design conditions on gasied black liquor fuel. The comparison is based on the powerhouse electric power output from a given quantity of biofuel. Dierent mill biofuel usage strategies are discussed.

2. Pulping process incorporating BLGCC technology This work focuses on heat and power balances for chemical pulp mill processes incorporating BLGCC technology. Fig. 1 illustrates the main material and energy ows of such a plant. The Swedish Ecocyclic Pulp Mill (KAM98) reference pulp mill [6] is assumed as a basis for the calculations. The KAM reference mill is assumed to incorporate state-of-the-art commercially available technology, and has been used as reference in a number of former studies of BLGCC systems. Table 1 presents the key KAM mill characteristics relevant for this study, taken from [7]. The KAM mill recovery cycle adopts conventional Tomlinson boiler and steam turbine
WOOD
Make-up water

Black liquor

Bark

Mill Power Requirements

PULP MILL
Pulping chemicals regeneration

Condensate return

BLGCC
Gasification Island, Gas turbine, Steam system

Powerhouse Power output

Steam (MP,LP) Chemicals

PULP

POWER TO GRID

Fig. 1. Overview of energy and material stream ows in a pulp mill incorporating a BLGCC powerhouse.

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Table 1 Key characteristics of the KAM reference pulp mill Pulp plant capacity Pulp production Black liquor Black liquor ow Dry solids content LHV Bark Bark available for CHP Dry solids content HHV LHV (as red) Steam consumption MP steam demand (heat exchangers) MP steam demand (direct heating) LP steam demand (heat exchangers) LP steam demand (direct heating) ADt/day t/h wt% kJ/kg t/h wt% kJ/kg kJ/kg MW MW MW MW 1000 74.9 80 12,100 7.4 45 20,000 7569 26.1 24.0 53.1 13.1

Fig. 2. Assumed BLGCC conguration. Note that the gure does not show the condensing steam turbine section, nor the bark boiler.

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technology. In this study, these components are assumed to be replaced by BLGCC technology. Pulp production, black liquor ow and composition, recovered pulping chemicals ow and mill steam demand are assumed to be unaected by this change. Fig. 2 shows the BLGCC conguration considered, which includes the following components: pressurised high temperature oxygen blown gasier; semi-integrated oxygen plant (ASU); spent cooking chemical removal by weak-wash quench at the gasier outlet, raw-gas cooling in a triple-pressure waste heat boiler; acid gas removal unit (AGR); gas turbine engine; triple-pressure HRSG for heat recovery of gas turbine exhaust heat; back-pressure steam turbine unit with steam bleed points; condensing steam turbine unit when relevant. Note that this conguration is essentially identical to that discussed in Refs. [8,9]. Ref. [10] discusses other options for ASU integration. In addition to the BLGCC plant, additional high-pressure steam is raised in a bark boiler.

3. Methodology 3.1. Procedure The mill BLGCC powerhouse net power output is estimated using two dierent gas turbine models: 1. A model that attempts to account for o-design operation of an o-the-shelf engine with known characteristics, without resorting to detailed modelling and simulation strategies such as that discussed in e.g. Ref. [11]. Dierent engines are considered in order to identify the best suited engine for the application considered. 2. A simplied model based upon generic characteristics of a given class of engine. This modelling assumption is equivalent to assuming the existence of an engine ideally matched to the available fuel stream. The ideally modied engine is assumed to maintain the same pressure ratio, combustor outlet temperature and component eciencies and pressure drops as the natural gas version of the engine. All engine component sizes are matched with the available fuel ow and 30% of the ASU air requirements. The compressor discharge and combustion chambers are assumed adapted to gasied black liquor ring with compressor air extraction. Two dierent mill biofuel usage strategies are investigated: 1. All biofuel available at the mill site for CHP is red in the powerhouse. In this case, the steam production exceeds the mills demand and the surplus is used for additional power generation in a condensing steam turbine unit.

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2. Lignin is extracted from the black liquor stream (decreasing its heating value) and exported together with the bark. Surplus steam is avoided (i.e. biofuel usage is adjusted so that the powerhouse steam production matches the mill demand) and electric power generation occurs exclusively by high eciency cogeneration. Ref. [8] suggests that exporting biomass to other systems that can use it more eciently is an interesting alternative to using excess biofuel for increased electric power generation using condensing steam turbine units at the mill site. It should be noted that certain engines investigated necessarily perform better than others, since their required heat supply rate is close to that of the available gasied black liquor. The study nevertheless attempts to draw general conclusions relevant for future system studies of BLGCC systems. 3.2. Powerhouse performance indicator The net powerhouse electric power output is dened according to: PNet PGT PST Paux Note that this denition is restricted to on-site power generation and does not include possible additional power production resulting from o-site usage of the exported biofuel. 3.3. Simulation tools GateCycle [14] was used for gas turbine performance estimations. Representative data for the balance of the BLGCC plant was taken from previous work presented in Refs. [8,9]. 3.4. Plant modelling parameter assumptions Table 2 lists the main simulation input data. Plant modelling assumptions are discussed in detail in Refs. [8,9]. In particular, the following assumptions were made: A simplied theoretical model developed by Berglin [9] was considered for the black liquor gasication process. The model computes the composition of the gasied black liquor stream based on input data for the black liquor composition (as per KAM mill data) and temperature (130 C), and specied output temperature (950 C) and pressure. The gasier pressure is determined by the gas turbine pressure ratio and the pressure losses in the WHB unit, AGR unit and gas turbine combustor fuel port. 30% of the total ASU air ow requirement is bled from the gas turbine compressor discharge. Previous work [9] showed that this allows the gas turbine to operate acceptably close to the design operating conditions. Heat recovery is maximised in the WHB by raising LLP steam that is thereafter recompressed and fed into the LP steam system. Make-up water (to compensate for direct steam heating) and condensate from the condensing steam turbine unit are preheated to 110 C using low grade mill waste heat. The steam turbine units exactly match the available steam ows.

S. Harvey, B. Facchini / Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 111126 Table 2 Main simulation input parameters for BLGCC powerhouse Mill fuel ows and heat demand See Table 1 Steam levels LLP pressure bar 1.5 LP pressure bar 4.5 MP pressure bar 12 IP pressure bar 30 HP pressure bar 79 HP temperature C 480 Note: 2 C superheat unless otherwise noted Bark boiler (HP steam) Economizer exit subcooling C 5 Excess air (fract. of theoretical) 0.1 Boiler eciency (LHV basis) 0.879 HRSG Evaporators inlet subcooling C 10 Evaporators pinch point DT C 15 Gas side pressure loss (HRSG) kPa 2.491 Feedwater tank Operating pressure bar 4.5 Water outlet temperature C 135 WHB and AGR WHB pressure losses AGR pressure losses ASU ASU air provided by GT Outlet oxygen purity Inlet/outlet pressure Outlet temperature Gasier Operating temperature Incoming BL temperature Steam turbines Condensing ST is. eciency Back-pressure ST is. eciency ST generator eciency Auxiliaries Air compressor is. eciency Steam compressor is. eciency Gas turbine See Appendix A bar bar % % bar C C C 0.5 2

117

30 95 6.5/4.5 129 950 130 0.82 0.82 0.98 0.88 0.87

4. Gas turbine operation with gasied biofuel Gas turbine units are designed for operation with natural gas or other premium fuels, and major modications to allow optimal operation with non-conventional fuels are usually excluded for cost reasons. O-design conditions therefore occur when ring with low caloric value fuel. For example, for engine operation at design combustor outlet temperature, increased mass ow enters both the combustion chamber and the expander. The combustion chamber must usually be modied to restrict emissions, assure ame stability, and allow operation exibility (e.g. operation with conventional fuel for start-up and back-up purposes).

4.1. Engine operation issues One major problem when ring gasied biofuel in a commercial engine is compressor stability. This is illustrated in Fig. 3, showing compressor and turbine ow characteristics (i.e. owrate as a function of pressure ratio). Compared to design operation with natural gas fuel, ring with low caloric value fuel (the computed heating value of the clean syngas is approximately 10 MJ/Nm3 ) at constant combustor outlet temperature results in a decrease of compressor ow, essentially constant expander ow (due to choked ow conditions), and a shift towards higher engine pressure ratio. A small (typically 35%) pressure ratio increase is acceptable, higher values typically result in compressor instability.

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Limiting off-design operation with low heating value fuel

Normal natural gas operation

Compressor Turbine

Mass flow
Fig. 3. Gas turbine expander and compressor ow characteristic curves.

Other problems result from engine ring with gasied biofuel. The increased expander ow at constant combustor outlet temperature leads to a higher power output (up to 20% more than the design value) which can lead to unacceptably high shaft torque values [13]. Furthermore, increased thermal loading of the expander blade airfoils can cause critically high material temperatures [12]. Possible solutions include the following: 1. Partial closing of the compressor Inlet Guide Vanes decreases the air ow through the engine, but does not signicantly reduce the risk of compressor instability. 2. Increasing the expander inlet nozzle ow area allows the increased ow to be accommodated without increasing the engine pressure ratio. This option however involves major component redesign. 3. Decreasing the combustor outlet temperature achieves similar eect at much lower cost. The performance penalty is however signicant. Dierent studies (e.g. [12,13]) suggest a moderate (2030 C) decrease of combustor outlet temperature. 4. Air bleed from the compressor outlet. In this study, compressor instability problems are avoided by bleeding a fraction of the ASU air from the compressor discharge. Expander airfoil thermal loading is reduced by constraining the enthalpy ow (kJ/s) of the hot inlet gas to not exceed the design value. 4.2. Gas turbine modelling Performance of the gas turbine engine was estimated using GateCycle [14]. This software includes pre-built gas turbine models, together with a library of simulation parameters tted to reproduce with acceptable accuracy the performance of commercial engines running on natural

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gas fuel. These models do not include the possibility to bleed air from the compressor discharge, and are therefore not suitable for this study. The gas turbine was therefore modelled based on the key components, i.e. compressor, combustion chamber, and expander. A splitter was included at the compressor discharge to allow for air extraction for the ASU. A duct burner was also included at the engine outlet. Many input parameter values are necessary to simulate a gas turbine engine, even for the relatively simple modelling procedure assumed in this work. Published engine data is usually restricted to the following: net electric power output and eciency, rotation speed, pressure ratio, exhaust owrate and temperature. The simulation input parameter selection procedure is discussed in Appendix A. 4.3. Part-load operation This study assumes steady-state mill production, and does not consider seasonal variations of the mill steam demand. Part-load operation occurs therefore only for engines that are oversized with respect to the available gasied biofuel stream. Dierent strategies are available for engine part-load operation, such as lowering combustor outlet temperature (fuel ow control), bleeding air from the compressor, recirculating compressor outlet air to the engine inlet, or closing the compressor IGVs. The goal of this work was not a detailed investigation of dierent gas turbine part-load operation strategies, thus the only strategy investigated is decrease of the combustor outlet temperature, corresponding to the most frequently used control system. Previous work [15] investigating part-load operating strategies for gas turbine engines red with low caloric value fuels show that this strategy results in a relatively low performance penalty for the engine. It is however clear that the use of combined strategies based on fuel ow control in combination with IGV and other compressor control systems can oer better part-load performance in integrated gasication combined cycle applications. Further discussion of the assumptions for simulation of engine part-load performance may be found in Appendix A.

5. BLGCC powerhouse performance when all available biofuel is used at the mill site In this section, all available biofuel is used in the mill powerhouse, and the resulting surplus steam is used for additional power generation in a condensing steam turbine unit. 5.1. Gas turbine engine selection Congurations with one engine and two identical smaller engines are considered. Table 3 shows nominal ISO engine performance data from [16] for engines matched to the available biofuel stream based on fuel heat supply rate. It should be noted that in this study it is assumed that all

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Table 3 Published performance data for the gas turbine engines considered in this study (ISO conditions, i.e. natural gas operation with inlet air at 15 C, 101.3 kPa, 60% relative humidity) Manufacturer Single engine congurations Siemens GE Power Systems Twin engine congurations Alstom Power Alstom Power GE Marine & Industrial GE Power Systems Mitsubishi H.I. Model V64.3A PG6101 GT10C GTX100 LM6000 PG5371 MF-221 Power (kW) 68,000 70,140 29,060 43,000 40,152 26,300 30,000 Electric eciency 0.347 0.342 0.360 0.370 0.391 0.285 0.320 Qfuel;in (kW) 195,960 205,149 161,476 232,256 205,270 184,832 187,624 w (kJ/kg) 356 354 319 355 320 215 278

suitably sized gas turbine engines can operate without derating on low caloric value fuel gas (in practise, operation with fuel gas with a heating value of around 10 MJ/Nm3 may require more or less substantial modications of the engine, particularly the combustors). The engines retained for the study on the basis of suitable size are mostly relatively advanced units, with the exception of the GE PG5371 engine which is a older engine with more conservative design. It should be noted that in practise conservative design engines may be more easily adapted to ring with unconventional fuels than the more advanced units. Finally, it is clear that this study assumes a xed ow of gasied black liquor, and that none of the engines retained exactly matches the available fuel ow. For oversized engines, biofuel available from the process is insucient to maintain the design combustor outlet temperature. Top-up gas turbine fuel is assumed not to be available, and such engines must therefore run at part-load. For undersized engines, part of the gasied biofuel stream is diverted to the duct burner. 5.2. Results and discussion The net mill powerhouse electric power output was estimated for BLGCC plants incorporating the above-mentioned gas turbine engines, accounting for engine o-design operation. These results are compared with the power output estimated assuming a simplied gas turbine model. Table 4 shows a summary of the results obtained for three dierent categories of engine. Group 1 engines are slightly oversized with respect to the available gasied biofuel ow, and operate at moderate part-load. Group 2 engines are undersized and operate at full load. The excess fuel is sent to the duct burner, thus enabling additional HP steam to be raised. Finally, the third group consists of oversized engines that are doubly penalized, rst because of part-load operation due to insucient fuel availability, and second because the resulting turbine outlet temperature becomes too low requiring that fuel be diverted to the duct burner in order to achieve the specied HRSG steam conditions. The powerhouse incorporating a V64.3A engine achieves the highest net power output. The PG6101 engine, representative of the GE Frame 6FA family of engines, achieves a similar power

S. Harvey, B. Facchini / Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 111126 Table 4 Results: BLGCC powerhouse performance. All available biofuel used on-site (no export) Group 1 V64.3A GT power ST power Gross power Power for Auxiliaries Net power output MW MW MW MW MW 63.44 22.67 86.11 )8.08 78.03 80.30 PG6101 62.07 22.43 84.49 )8.15 76.34 79.47 Group 2 GT10C 56.36 27.20 83.56 )8.14 75.42 80.36 PG5371 42.31 26.44 68.75 )9.03 59.72 60.80 MF-221 58.34 22.94 81.29 )8.11 73.18 74.66 Group 3

121

GTX100 LMJ6000 58.55 21.04 79.59 )7.98 71.61 82.89 53.43 23.74 77.17 )7.97 69.20 83.02

Power output of powerhouse MW with ideally modied GT engine Dierence MW Dierence %

2.27 2.91

3.13 4.10

4.93 6.54

1.08 1.80

1.48 2.02

11.28 15.75

13.81 19.96

output. Other studies, e.g. [17], conrm that this class of engine is best suited to BLGCC applications integrated with the KAM reference pulp mill. According to the results of this study, a powerhouse incorporating two GT10C engines could be an interesting alternative. The low net power output of the PG5371 engine is due to its older conservative design. The results show that available fuel heat supply rate is an inadequate basis for engine selection. The engine exhaust ow conditions should be evaluated with respect to steam production potential in the HRSG, since diverting fuel to the duct burner to meet specied HP steam data decreases system performance. High engine pressure ratios usually increase sensitivity to odesign operation. These issues are well illustrated by comparing the results for systems incorporating the PG6101 and LM6000 engines. Despite similar design fuel supply rates (see Table 3) close to that of the available gasied biofuel stream, the net plant power output values dier substantially. The LM6000 engine is oversized, leading to part-load operation. The engine pressure ratio is high, leading to poor o-design operation and a low expander outlet temperature, which further deteriorates performance since fuel must be diverted to the duct burner to achieve the specied HRSG steam outlet conditions. For engines that are essentially well-matched to the available fuel ow (i.e. the engines in groups 1 and 2 in Table 4), the dierences in estimated net powerhouse power output for the two gas turbine engine models are relatively small, ranging typically from 1.8% to 6.5%. The dierence is greater for the two signicantly oversized engines in group 3. The dierence between results for the two gas turbine engine models can be interpreted in two ways: (i) as an estimation of the error committed when estimating BLGCC powerhouse power output using a simple model that does not account for o-design operating characteristics of the gas turbine engine; (ii) as an estimation of the potential powerhouse power output increase if the gas turbine were to be ideally modied so as to match the available fuel ow. The calculated power output of the dierent systems is to be considered as a conservative estimate. As discussed previously, other part-load engine operating strategies and dierent ASU integration schemes may result in better performance.

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6. BLGCC powerhouse performance with biofuel export from the mill The previous section investigated the performance of a BLGCC powerhouse consuming all available biofuel. Surplus steam was expanded in a condensing steam turbine unit. A previous study [8] discussed the option of exporting excess biofuel (lignin extracted from the black liquor, and bark) to other more ecient o-site applications. In this section, on-site biofuel usage is therefore limited to the amount necessary to fuel a BLGCC plant sized such that the cogenerated steam production exactly matches the mill demand. The plant performance indicator considered is net on-site power output. No credit is given in this study for the o-site usage of the exported biofuel. Further discussion may be found in [8]. In addition to the assumptions discussed previously, the BLGCC powerhouse is furthermore specied to exactly meet mill steam demand. Maximal heat recovery is assumed within the powerhouse plant, thereby limiting the amount of electric power that can be cogenerated. In all cases considered, all available bark is exported from the mill, together with a fraction of the lignin content of the black liquor stream. Due to lack of specic data, lignin extraction is assumed not to aect mill steam consumption. Table 5 presents a summary of the results obtained. Although a number of dierent engines were considered, results are presented for two engines that best illustrate the issues specic to this case. The rst engine considered (two GT10C engines in parallel) is oversized for the application, meaning that with the engines running at full-load, the powerhouse still produces 2.7 kg/s of surplus LP steam (see Full-load results in Table 5). If there is no need for the steam, the HRSG boiler size can be reduced (i.e. slightly relaxing the constraint of maximum heat recovery from the gas turbine exhaust stream), resulting in a biofuel export potential of 45.70 MW, and an on-site power output of 57.49 MW. Alternatively, the engine can be run at part-load such that with full heat recovery from the gas turbine exhaust stream, the powerhouse steam generation exactly meets the mill demand. Constraining the engine to run in this way is dicult. When the engine is run at part-load, the expander outlet temperature decreases below the critical value required to maintain HP steam data, and fuel must be diverted to the duct burner. Under these conditions, the total system steam production proves to be relatively insensitive to the amount of lignin extracted from the black liquor stream, whereas the electric power output decreases notably as less fuel energy is sent to the gas turbine. Compared to full-load operation, the net power output decreases from 57.49 to 50.84 MW, whereas the potential biofuel export increases from 45.70 to 62.71 MW. A marginal power generation eciency can be computed comparing the additional power output to the additional biofuel consumed. The resulting marginal eciency is 39.1%. This number can be compared as appropriate with the electric power generation eciency of the osite user of the exported biofuel. Such comparisons are however beyond the scope of this paper. Finally, results are presented for the simplied ideal design model of the engine. Compared to the case where the engine runs at part-load, the ideal design produces signicantly more electric power (52.37 MW compared to 50.84 MW) while maintaining essentially the same potential for biofuel export. Table 5 also presents results for the undersized GTX100 engine. In this case, when lignin extraction is adjusted to achieve full-load engine operation, steam production is insucient to meet the mill demand. Again, this problem can be solved in several ways. One is to reduce the HP steam

S. Harvey, B. Facchini / Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 111126 Table 5 Results: BLGCC powerhouse performance with biofuel export BLGCC gas turbine engine Operating conditions/constraints Gas turbine operating conditions Limiting factor for lignin extraction GT gas turbine full load fuel Demand Steam mill steam demand Surplus LP steam Biofuel export Available black liquor Available bark from debarking unit Black liquor to BLGCC Lignin extracted for export Bark export Total biofuel export Power generation GT power ST power Power for Auxiliaries Net power output Dierence w.r.t. ideal design engine GT10C Full-load GT Part-load Ideal design Steam Steam GTX 100 Full-load Steam

123

Ideal design Steam

kg/s MW MW MW MW MW MW MW MW MW MW MW %

2.7 251.67 15.57 221.54 30.13 15.57 45.70 56.50 8.74 )7.75 57.49 5.12 8.9

0.0 251.67 15.57 204.53 47.13 15.57 62.71 51.21 7.24 )7.61 50.84 )1.53 )3.02

0.0 251.67 15.57 204.67 47.00 15.57 62.57 51.87 7.85 )7.35 52.37 n/a n/a

0.0 251.67 15.57 191.42 60.25 15.57 75.83 41.19 10.70 )7.23 44.66 )10.70 )24.0

0.0 251.67 15.57 206.52 45.15 15.57 60.73 53.53 9.01 )7.18 55.36 n/a n/a

production in favour of direct MP and LP steam production in the HRSG (i.e. reduce the size of the steam turbine, thereby substantially reducing the powerhouse electric power output). This solution was not considered in this study. Another solution retained in this work is to reduce lignin extraction and burn a fraction of the fuel stream in the HRSG duct burner, thereby increasing both electric power output and steam production. As expected, compared to the powerhouse congurations based on the GT10C engine, this leads to a substantially higher potential biofuel export (75.83 MW) but a lower electric power output (44.66 MW). The ideal version of the engine is substantially larger, thereby avoiding the need to bypass fuel to the duct burner, and the potential power output is thereby much higher (55.36 MW compared to 44.66 MW), with a lower potential for biofuel export (60.73 MW compared to 75.83 MW). The dierence between the two gas turbine modelling options is substantial for the GTX100 engine. However, this dierence is due primarily to the poor match of the engine to the application considered. The GT10C engine was judged to be the best match, and more attention should be paid to the results achieved for this engine. For this engine, the dierence between estimated power output for dierent gas turbine models is very much dependent on the assumed operating strategy of the engine so as to meet the steam production constraint. In particular, it should be noted that if the engine must run at part-load, plant operation becomes too complicated to be estimated adequately with simplied models.

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7. Conclusions The results of this work suggest the following conclusions: As for all gas turbine CHP plants, selection of an engine based on fuel ow requirements and electric power output does not necessarily lead to the best choice. It is also important to consider the impact of engine exhaust conditions on potential heat recovery. This is particularly important if the steam is to be delivered to a steam system with given characteristics. For BLGCC powerhouses where all available fuel is used for CHP, the dierence between estimated power output using a simplied gas turbine model and a more sophisticated model that accounts for o-design engine operation is typically below 5%, provided that a suitably sized engine can be identied. This can also be interpreted as an indication that the potential for improved power output that could be achieved by resizing all engine components to match the available fuel ow can be reasonably estimated at less than 5% for the case considered. For applications with biofuel export, constraining the BLGCC powerhouse to meet the mill steam requirement while simultaneously cogenerating electric power with a high total eciency can lead to complex operating conditions. In this case, simplied gas turbine modelling techniques can lead to more substantial errors, particularly for oversized engines constrained to operate at part-load. Further study involving dierent mill sizes and dierent ratios between available biofuel and mill steam demand is necessary to conrm the generality of the above conclusions. Furthermore, the fraction of compressor air bleed to the ASU considered in this study is well adapted to operation of the engine on gasied black liquor. For ASU integration schemes that result in more severe o-design operation of the engine, simplied gas turbine models may well prove to be unsatisfactory even for engines sizes well matched to the available fuel ow. Finally, additional powerhouse operating issues due to e.g. seasonal variation of the mill steam demand were not considered in this study, but could lead to additional problems requiring a suitably detailed gas and steam turbine model to achieve results acceptable for system studies. Acknowledgements Funding for this work was provided by the Swedish National Energy Administration Process Integration research programme. The authors would like to thank Luca Manzini for performing a substantial part of the calculations as a part of his Engineering Degree Thesis project. Professor Thore Berntsson and H akan Eriksson from the lead authors department at Chalmers University of Technology are also thanked for many helpful discussions. Appendix A. Assumptions for gas turbine modelling A.1. Parameter selection for engine simulation at nominal ISO conditions (i.e. natural gas operation with inlet air at 15 C, 101.3 kPa, 60% relative humidity)

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Compressor Single-stage. Inlet pressure drop: 400 H2 O (0.9963 kPa). Pressure ratio: set according to published manufacturers data. Rotation speed: according to published manufacturers data. Air bleeds for expander cooling and ASU: located at compressor discharge. Isentropic eciency: varied within the range 0.880.9 in order to best match published manufacturers engine performance data.

Combustion chamber Pressure drop: 6% for aeroderivative type engines (LM6000); 3% for industrial heavy-duty engines (all other engines included in the study). Fuel overpressure: 70% for natural gas, 10% for gasied biofuel. Combustion eciency: 0.995. For certain engines, this value was varied in order to better match published engine performance data. A limit of 0.985 was set as the lowest acceptable value. Combustor outlet temperature: set based on engine simulation experience, and assumed to vary more or less proportionally to engine specic work w (dened as the engine net power output divided by the exhaust owrate). Expansion turbine Modelled as a single-stage cooled expander. Outlet owrate: set according to published manufacturer data. Exhaust pressure loss: 1000 H2 O (i.e. 2.4907 kPa) given the presence of the HRSG. Expander isentropic eciency: calculated in order to match published engine data for the engine net power output. Expander cooling ow: estimated according to a model for cooled expansion in gas turbine expanders developed by one of the authors and described in Ref. [18]. In accordance with GateCycle standard simulation assumptions, the coolant ow is assumed to be equally split between the rotor and nozzle, and 50% of the rotor coolant ow is assumed to be non-chargeable, i.e. is assumed to mix with the main ow at the stage inlet. Duct burner The minimum outlet temperature was set at 770 K in order to maintain the specied steam data at the HRSG outlet. Two simulation input parameters can thus be adjusted by the user (compressor eciency and the combustion eciency) within the intervals discussed above such as to minimise the error on calculated engine exhaust temperature and eciency compared to manufacturers published data. For the engines considered in this study, the maximum errors on calculated engine eciency (0.5%) and exhaust temperatures (0.75%) for natural gas operation at ISO conditions were judged to be acceptable.

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A.2. Assumptions for simulation of the engine at part-load conditions Engine component performance at part-load was estimated assuming the following: Choked expander ow conditions at full-load. Limited changes of pressure ratio at part-load do not aect this condition, and the isentropic expander eciency is assumed to remain constant. Constant combustion chamber eciencies and pressure drop values. Variable compressor eciency estimated using a simplied correction equation included in the GateCycle model. Calculations using compressor maps available in GateCycle were not judged to give substantially better results for the cases considered. References
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