ARTICLE IN PRESS

Energy 32 (2007) 549567

www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

CO2 abatement by co-ring of natural gas and

biomass-derived gas in a gas turbine
Daniele Fiaschi, Riccardo Carta
Dipartimento di Energetica Sergio Stecco, University of Florence, Via C. Lombroso, 6/17, 50134 Firenze, Italy
Received 1 November 2005

Abstract
In this work, a possible way for partial CO2 emissions reduction from gas turbine exhausts by co-ring with biomass is investigated.
The basic principle is the recirculation of a fraction of the exhausts (still rich in oxygen) to a gasier, in order to produce syngas to mix
with natural gas fuel. As biomass is a CO2 neutral fuel, the fraction of replaced natural gas is a measure of CO2 removal potential of the
powerplant.
The investigated solution considers the conversion of solid fuel to a gaseous fuel into an atmospheric gasier, which is blown with a
recirculated fraction of hot gas turbine exhausts, typically still rich in air. In this way, the heat content of the exhausts may be exploited to
partially sustain the gasication section.
The produced syngas, after the tar removal into the high temperature cracker, is thus sent to the cooling section, consisting of three
main components: (I) gas turbine recuperator, (II) heat recovery steam generator and (III) condensing heat exchanger to cool down the
syngas close to the environmental temperature before the subsequent recompression and mixing with natural gas fuel into the
combustion chamber. The water stream produced within the condensing heat exchanger upstream the syngas compression is vaporised
and sent back to the gasier.
If very limited modication to the existing gas turbine has to be applied in order to keep the additional costs limited, only a relatively
reduced fraction of the low caloric value syngas may be mixed with natural gas. The analysis at different levels of co-ring has shown
that no appreciable redesign has to be applied to the target GE5 machine up to 2530% (heat rate based) renewable fraction. With an
accurate heat recovery from the cooling/cleaning system of the syngas, the same levels of efciency of the original machine have been
achieved, in spite of the relatively large power consumption of the syngas recompression. Very interesting results have been obtained
within the 1030% range of biomass co-ring, with CO2 removal levels between 30% and 50% with reference to the values of the base
GE5 gas turbine powerplant.
The economic analysis has shown that, in spite of the high investment required for the syngas fuel production chain (gasier, coolers,
cleaners and fuel compressor), approximately at the same level of gas turbine itself, there is an interesting attractiveness due to the
possibility of selling high-value green certicates and CO2 allowances, which reduce the payback time to 24 years.
The uncertainty on the calculated economic parameters are greatly inuenced by the uncertainty on actual biomass availability and
yearly working time of powerplant, whereas off design operation, which affects mainly the uncertainty of compressor and turbine
efciency, is mainly reected on the uncertainty of electric power output and efciency.
r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Gasication; Co-ring; Gas turbine; Biomass; Green certicates; CO2 emissions reduction

1. Introduction
The Kyoto Protocol subscription led many countries to
make efforts toward the research and proposal of systems
Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 055 4796776; fax: +39 055 4224137.

E-mail address: danif@de.uni.it (D. Fiaschi).

0360-5442/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.energy.2006.07.026

and techniques for CO2 capture and sequestration from

powerplants. Most of these studies investigate the eld of
massive CO2 emissions capture (80% plus), by applying pre
or post combustion technologies [111]. The proposed
solutions often imply relevant changes in existing turbomachinery equipment, which are highly expensive and
generally discourage the electricity providers in taking

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D. Fiaschi, R. Carta / Energy 32 (2007) 549567

550

Nomenclature
AFst
AFact
aGT
a
b
DFGE5

ZGT
ZEL
Zlm
ZGEN
Cquota
ER
eH
f
FGE5
FGT
Fren
GC
Ggreen
GCO2
GCH4
HP
HR

actual air/fuel ratio

stoichiometric air/fuel ratio
sound speed at inlet turbine (m/s)
moles of H per mole of biomass
moles of O per mole of biomass
variation of dimensional ow coefcient at
turbine inlet relative to the nominal GE5 design
value
GT efciency
net electric efciency
lm cooling effectiveness
electric generator efciency
price of CO2 allowance per ton of CO2 avoided
equivalence ratio AFact/AFst
blade cooling effectiveness
fraction of exhausts recirculated to the gasier
nominal dimensional ow coefcient of the
target GE5 gas turbine (m2)
dimensional mass ow coefcient at turbine
inlet (m2)
fraction of gas turbine heat rate provided with
syngas fuel
price of green certicates (h/kWh)
yearly incomes from sale of green certicates
(h)
yearly incomes (or missed outcomes) due to
CO2 quota (h)
yearly savings, over the basic GT, due to
reduced natural gas consumption (h)
total energy of products (kW)
total energy of reactants (kW)

some measures against CO2 emissions [10,11]. Even the

cheapest solutions, aimed to reduce, as far as possible, the
redesign of existing equipment (i.e. semi-closed gas turbine
cycles SCGT), have shown additional costs of electricity
around 6070% compared to traditional layouts with no
CO2 removal [12,13], even if most recent studies promise to
reach the low 3040% levels [14]. Further unknowns
connected to costs of transportation and storage of liquid
compressed CO2 and the related environmental safety
made application of CO2 capture systems unattended [15].
It is well known that renewable fuel sources have, globally,
zero CO2 emissions to the environment, thus they might have
an interesting potential to approach the greenhouse issue. On
the other hand, their extensive application to existing
powerplants often involves deep and expensive modications
to current technologies. The most mature are those involving
IGCC, the largest fraction of which are currently fed with
coal but might be converted (at least partially) to biomass
fuels with no appreciable changes in equipment. They are,
anyway, applicable in the eld of large power generation, of
the order of few hundred MW electric power [16].

yearly number of working hours (years)

hY
LHV generic lower heating value (kJ/kg)
LHVCC lower heating value of fuel mixture at combustion chamber inlet (kJ/kg)
LHVsyn lower heating value of syngas (kJ/kg)
LpGAS relative pressure loss (Dp/p) at the gasier+tar
cracker
LpHRSG relative pressure loss (Dp/p) at the heat recovery
steam generator (HRSG)+baghouse lter
LpREC relative pressure loss (Dp/p) at the GT recuperator
LpSEP relative pressure loss (Dp/p) at the condensing
heat exchanger (SEP)+scrubber
mbio
biomass owrate (kg/s)
mIG
mass owrate of exhausts recirculated to the
gasier (kg/s)
mGT
inlet turbine mass owrate (kg/s)
msteam mass ow of reinjected steam into the gasier
(kg/s)
msyn
syngas owrate (kg/s)
PBT
payback time (years)
PR
compressor pressure ratio
Q
heat added or released to gasier (kW)
R
powerplant size scale coefcient
rGT
gas density at turbine inlet (kg/m3)
T0
reference temperature (K)
Tg
gasication temperature (K)
Tin
gasier inlet temperature (K)
TOSEP syngas temperature at the SEP outlet (K)
Wcmain main compressor power consumption (kW)
Wcsyn power demand for syngas fuel recompression
(kW)

The upcoming 2006 CO2 emissions trading into the

European Community should encourage all Member States
to provide substantial investments for tackling CO2
emissions. The market of CO2 allowances is planned to
start by April 2006. Companies covered by the Emissions
Trading Scheme need to record and report their CO2
emissions as of January 2005. They also need to deliver for
the rst time in April 2006 a sufcient number of
allowances to cover emissions during 2005. If a company
delivers no allowancesor not enough allowancesa
sanction of h40 per non-delivered allowance will be
imposed by the Member State. In this way, the adoption
of systems with even partial CO2 emissions reduction
potential (1550%) might lead to a consistent reduction in
electricity production costs and encourage companies to
make investments for CO2 abatement. The partial integration of biomass fuels with natural gas implies a proportional reduction of CO2 emissions, playing, globally, an
important role if its application was extended to several
powerplants. The co-ring of gas turbines with natural gas
and biomass-derived fuel has been a largely investigated

ARTICLE IN PRESS
D. Fiaschi, R. Carta / Energy 32 (2007) 549567

issue in the last decades [1618]. Generally speaking, the

biomass integrated gasication/gas turbine (BIGGT) has
the potential of improving the efciency of electricity
production from external combustion of steam powerplants (ranging from 15% to 30%), approaching the 40%
level with atmospheric gasiers at reduced scale [1921].
One of the main problems connected with coupling
biomass gasication and gas turbines is the low heating
value of the produced gas (typically 1025% of the natural
gas heating value, which is the target level in design of most
current gas turbines [16]), which leads to an high increase in
inlet turbine owrate at xed combustion chamber outlet
temperature. When current production machines are
considered, this increase in mass owrate raises the
compressor pressure ratio, pushing it toward the surge
line. Pressure ratios higher than 45% of the design value
are not acceptable, thus some measures must be adopted,
such as partial closing of the compressors IGV, bleeding
air from the compressor or derating the power cycle by
reducing the combustor outlet temperature. The last one is
the cheapest option, but leads to a noticeable reduction of
GT performance [22,23]. The other option is a deep turbine
redesign, at the price of a great economic effort. If the
integration of fuel with renewables is not so high, reduced
off design problems on existing turbomachinery equipment
may be achieved and limited additional costs would be
expectable. In fact, an adaptation of the compressor
turbine system by the means of reduction of turbine inlet
temperature by 2030 1C might be a reasonable option at a
relatively limited efciency price [22,23]. Co-ring of gas
turbines with biomass-derived syngas is generally considered, at present, the most promising option for a consistent
enhancement of biomass use in electricity generation [23].
The use of biomass-based fuels as a mean for mitigation of
CO2 release to the environment has been investigated
recently for a large-scale IGCC, showing the potential for
efcient power generation and negative CO2 emissions
balance at a relatively competitive investment cost [24]. The
application of LCA even showed the environmental
advantages of biomass utilisation for reduction of
both greenhouse gas emissions and natural resource
depletion [25].
The present proposal aims to apply not very complex
solutions for reduction of CO2 emissions from powerplants
by co-ring with biomass-derived fuel. The basic idea is the
possibility of an internal capture of CO2 emissions, by
the integration of biomass fuel with natural gas to a current
production gas turbine: a small fraction of the exhausts,
typically rich in fresh air, is recycled and used as the
oxidiser of a gasication process, which should produce the
amount of gas to replace the saved fraction of natural gas.
The recirculation of a fraction of the exhausts to the
gasier is advantageous because it is a hot stream, which
gives an important contribution to sustain the endothermic
gasication reactions, thus helping the conversion ratio of
the solid fuel. Moreover, recirculation represents a sort of
internal recycling of a fraction of produced CO2. In fact,

551

an important feature of the proposed powerplant over the

power cycles with CO2 capture upstream or downstream
combustion is that no additional recompression and/or
disposal of the CO2 is needed. The objective of this work is
to assess the chances of applying this technique to remove a
fraction of the CO2 emissions from the traditional natural
gas-fuelled GT cycle without recurring to redesign of the
main components and without the need of devices for CO2
concentration and managing. In this way, even if a
relatively small amount of CO2 may be avoided (typically
from 10% to 30% with minor modications to the gas
turbine), such solutions might become attractive, in the
short to medium term, due to their rather limited
additional cost and encouraged by the application of CO2
emissions trading and green certicates. These kinds of
solutions, with only limited potential CO2 emissions
reduction, deserve special attention even in the view of
Kyoto Protocol agreement signed by several European
countries (for example, the objective for Italy is the
reduction of CO2 emissions by 7% related to 1990s value).
2. Description of the power cycle
The most of BIGGT powerplant proposals and the
related studies are based on integrated gasication
combined cycles (IGCC), that represent the best solution
for efciency (4448% efciency levels are achieved
[1618,24,25]). Unfortunately, they become economically
affordable only in large sizes (50 MWe plus) and the
application of co-ring to an existing fossil-fuelled powerplant is, often, economically discouraging. What we
investigate here is the possibility of applying an economic
solution, which is able to convert an existing gas turbine
powerplant, designed to be natural gas fuelled, into a cored powerplant. This should be achieved by the addition,
to the existing installation, of a gasier for the conversion
of solid to gaseous fuel followed by the related syngas
cleaning equipment. Here, this is not done in the
conventional way for gas turbine, which is applying a
pressurised gasier fed by the main compressor. An
atmospheric gasier is considered, where the endothermic
reduction reactions are sustained by partial combustion of
biomass fuel, which accomplished through recirculation of
a fraction of the gas turbine exhausts, having typically a
still large air content. In this way, two advantages are
achieved: (I) the heat content of the recirculated exhausts is
useful for sustaining (partially) the gasication reactions
and increase the higher heating value of syngas [26] and (II)
the CO2 and vapour content of the exhausts (normally not
present in air-blown reactors) should favour tri-reforming
reactions, thus enhancing the conversion of C to CO
and H2 [27].
The basic scheme of the proposed power cycles is shown
on Fig. 1. The biomass-derived fuel (syngas) comes from
gasication process. Rather than blowing environmental
air as gasication agent, a fraction of the gas turbine
exhausts, having a still large air content, is recirculated into

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552

D. Fiaschi, R. Carta / Energy 32 (2007) 549567

Fig. 1. Schematic of co-red power cycle and main working data.

the gasier. In this way, as above discussed, the heat

content is exploited to partially sustain the endothermic
gasication reactions. Moreover, the CO2 of the exhausts
has a benecial effect on the gasication of carbon. The
syngas coming out from the gasier is thus cooled down
into three different sections:
1. In the rst one (recuperator at high temperature) the
heat is transferred to the compressed air of the GT,
upstream the combustion chamber. To do this, a
gasgas heat exchanger must be adopted, which is,
typically, a large and relatively expensive component. In
this case, the low mass owrate of the syngas should
allow a limited size anyway (the warming of compressed
air is relatively modest, see values of temperature
increase on air side in Fig. 1).
2. In the second one, a further cooling is done into a heat
recovery steam generator (HRSG) and superheated
atmospheric steam is produced. The necessary water
comes from the third syngas cooling step.
3. Finally, the syngas is further cooled down into the
condensing heat exchanger (SEP in Fig. 1), near to
environmental temperature, which is below the dew
point of the gas mixture. This operation leads to the
condensation of some water, which is vaporised again
into the upstream HRSG and sent back to the gasier.
The water condensation allows about 10% reduction of

the syngas mass owrate sent to the syngas compressor,

thus the related power demand is reduced and the
hydrogen content of the biomass-derived fuel is increased. The heat released at the SEP might be used for
cogeneration purposes, but its contribution to the
improvement of plant performance has not been
accounted here.
For the proposed power cycle, heat recovery on the
syngas line is fundamental to avoid dramatic drops in
efciency, thus the tar removal from hot gas is a crucial
issue. The possibility of achieving satisfactory levels of tar
removal by high-temperature cracking using dolomite as a
catalyst is proven and has reached commercial level at
temperature ranging between 800 and 1000 1C [16,17,33],
like those found at the gasier outlet here proposed (see
Fig. 1). It may be even integrated to the gasication process
itself. Recent studies [34] have shown the interesting
potential of applying nickel-based catalytic lters to
integrated high-temperature removal of tars and particles
from biomass-derived gaseous fuels. After the tar cracking,
the nal gas cleaning is done at low-temperature with
baghouse lter and water scrubbing, downstream the
HRSG. Actually, water scrubbing would not be required
if the nal cleaning of gas was done into the SEP, which
works under syngas saturated conditions. Anyway, given
the uncertainty related to the application of this rather

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D. Fiaschi, R. Carta / Energy 32 (2007) 549567

unconventional component for nal gas cleaning, a classic

scrubber has been added too.
These technologies should be able to deal with various
biomass fuels with different properties and degrees of
contamination. Moreover, most parts of the system have
been proven commercially [33], thus they are attractive in
the present proposal where control of additional costs is a
major issue. If tar removal at cracker is not satisfactory,
possible problems related to their condensation might arise
at the sections where temperature is below 400500 1C (i.e.
at HRSG, see Fig. 1). On the other hand, the eventual
residual tars may be completely removed downstream the
SEP, where the saturation conditions favour the coalescence of particulate and residual tars into the following
scrubber [16]. Finally, if the whole amount of SEP
condensed water is sent back to the gasier, several
problems related to the treatment of contaminated wastewater may be reduced.
Fig. 2 shows the main performance data of the reference
target gas turbine (GE5) working with simple Joule cycle.
The reference catalogue data of the target gas turbine (GE
5), taken from GE Power site [35], are reported on Table 1.
They have been evaluated by tuning unknown parameters
(such as turbine and compressor polytropic efciencies,
blade and lm cooling efciency and maximum cycle
temperature) in order to match the catalogue data (i.e.
exhausts mass owrate mexh and temperature Texh, heat
rate and design pressure ratio).
As it is evident from data shown on Fig. 1, the
powerplant efciency might be further improved if
the large heat content of hot exhausts was recovered into

288 [K]

the heat recovery steam generator of a bottoming steam

cycle or, either, to increase the heat recovery on the
compressed air upstream the combustion chamber. This
possibilities have not been considered here, as the main
goal of this work is to assess the effects of co-ring with
partial recirculation of the exhausts applied to gas turbine
alone. Additional expensive components such as bottoming
steam cycle and HRSG, which investment costs often
require large power outputs to be paid off within reasonable time, have not been considered in this analysis.
Without entailed CO2 removal systems, the saved CO2
emission with respect to a standard gas turbine cycle
corresponds to that which would be emitted by the
replaced natural gas amount. In fact, the energy production from renewables like biomass, leads to globally zero
CO2 emissions to the environment. The addition of a
downstream CO2 removal system might further increase
the CO2 abatement, but it has not been investigated here.
The analysis has been carried out referring to a biogas/
natural gas integration ranging from 10% to 100%. The
upper limit is very hard to exceed due to the extremely low
syngas heating value, so that the gas turbine would
undergo serious off design problems.

3. Modelling gasier and powerplant

Two different modules, developed with EES software
(a tool for solving systems of equations with built in
libraries of several substances thermodynamic properties,
[28]), model the gasier and the whole powerplant.

288 [K]

19.59 [kg/s]
Mass composition

553

0.3587 [kg/s]
14.47 [bar]
1519 [K]

1.013 [bar]
N2c = 0.7504
O2c = 0.23
CO2c = 0.01279

718.7 [K]
PR= 14.8

14.99 [bar]

GT = 0.01259 [m2]

LpCC = 0.035

H2Oc = 0.0063
Tb = 1135 [K]
pt = -0.8

pc = -0.8

Wcmain = 7787 [kW]

H = 0.4

pnc = -0.9371

film = 0.23

2.351 [kg/s]

EL = 0.3066

1.013 [bar]

coolratio = 12 [%]

WEL = 5500 [kW]

GT = 0.3129

HEAT rate = 11740 [kJ/kWh]

gen = 0.98

WGT = 5612 [kW]

CO2Spec.emiss. = 816.9 [g/kWh]

Fig. 2. Schematic of target GE5 gas turbine and main working data.

847 [K]
19.95 [kg/s]

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D. Fiaschi, R. Carta / Energy 32 (2007) 549567

554

where HR and HP are the total energies of reactants and

products respectively at the related temperatures,
dened as
Z T in
Z T in
79
a
H R LHV CHa Ob a
cpO2 dT
cpN2 dT,
21
T0
T0

Table 1
GE-5 gas turbine design working data and main data of the co-red power
cycle
Net electric power output (kW)
Compressor pressure ratio
Exhausts owrate (kg/s)
Exhausts temperature (1C)
Heat rate (kJ/kWh)
Inlet compressor temperature (K)
Inlet compressor pressure (bar)
Assumed combustion chamber pressure loss (Dp/p) (%)
Design inlet turbine dimensional ow coefcient (m2)
Assumed blade cooling effectiveness eH
Assumed lm cooling effectiveness Zlm
Assumed compressor polytrophic efciency Zpc
Assumed cooled turbine polytrophic efciency Zpt
Calculated uncooled turbine polytrophic efciency Zpt
Assumed blade metal allowable temperature Tb (K)
Calculated maximum cycle temperature (K)
Exhausts composition
Mass fraction O2
Mass fraction N2
Mass fraction CO2
Mass fraction H2O
Further parameters of co-fired power cycle
Biomass composition (% dry basis)
C
H
O
Pressure loss into the GT recuperator (Dp/p) (%)
Pressure loss into the gasier+tar cracker (Dp/p) (%)
Pressure loss into the SEP+scrubber (Dp/p) (%)
Pressure loss into the HRSG+baghouse lter (Dp/p) (%)
Syngas cooler approach temperature (outlet syngasinlet air) (K)
HRSG approach temperature (inlet syngasoutlet steam) (K)

5500
14.8
20
574
11,740
288
1.013
3.5
0.01285
0.4
0.23
0.8
0.8
0.938
1135
1519
0.1473
0.735
0.06868
0.04902

49.60
6.20
44.20
3
3
5
5
60
20

Which follows a chemical equilibrium approach for the

evaluation of syngas composition, once the inlet biomass,
oxidant and reducer composition, equivalence ratio (ER)
and pressure are xed. The ER is here dened as the actual
air/fuel ratio (AFact) divided by the theoretical stoichiometric air/fuel ratio (AFst), which depends, obviously, on
the fuel chemical composition: ER AFact/AFst.
The general chemical equation, referred to one mole of
biomass, is the following:


79
N2 bH2 O cCO2
CHa Ob a O2
21
) n1 O2 n2 N2 n3 CO2 n4 CO n5 H2 O
1

where CHaOb is the chemical composition of the biomass,

resulting from the ultimate analysis of the feedstock (see
Table 1 for reference values here adopted).
Two calculation approaches may be followed:

Adiabatic, by xing ER and calculating the outlet

syngas composition and the related equilibrium temperature Tg, following the energy balance:
H R H P Q,

X Z
ni
HP
i

Tg

cpi dT n4 LHV co n6 LHV H2

T0

n10 LHV C n11 LHV CH4 ,

where LHV are the lower heating values of the

combustible species; Q is the heat needed or released
by the gasication reactions, which is set to zero in the
adiabatic process.
With xed gasication temperature Tg and ER, by the
same heat balance, determining the heat Q to be
released/provided from/to the gasier.

The number of moles of products n1,y, n10 of Eq. (1) is

found by minimisation of the Gibbs free energy. It is done
into a procedure that is the core of the gasier module.
The pyrolysis is implemented into same module, with the
addition of a semi-empirical model, which is able to predict
the gas composition and char production as functions of
the inlet biomass composition and the temperature
available at the pyrolyzer. Three main assumptions have
been done:

3.1. Gasification/pyrolysis module

n6 H2 n7 OH n8 NO n9 NO2 n10 CH4 ,

(2)

(1) pyrolysis is isothermal;

(2) the temperature range within the reactor must be within
the 400800 1C range and the required heat may be
provided externally (for example, by cooling the GT
exhausts [31]);
(3) residence time of the reactants into the reactor is
enough to achieve complete reactions.
In particular, the model is provided with a polynomial
second-order correlation based on tting of experimental
data [32], allowing the determination of the char mass
produced in pyrolysis (char yield as percentage of inlet
biomass owrate), which is a function of reactor temperature:
mchar 0:000075T 2outpyr  0:125T outpyr 67.
The temperature at the pyrolyzer outlet is determined at
equilibrium, by minimisation of Gibbs free energy, with the
same routine as the gasier module. The chemical species
considered in pyrolysis are CO, CO2, CH4 and H2. Tars
mass ow, here considered as made of H, C and O
elements, is calculated by mass balance of each elemental
specie.

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D. Fiaschi, R. Carta / Energy 32 (2007) 549567

3.2. Gas turbine (GT)

Which is modelled by the means of well-tested software,
developed at Energy Engineering Department of University of Florence [29,30] with EES software, including the
blade cooling [28]. The two modules are joined together in
two different sections:
1. Fuel section: the syngas coming from the gasier is
mixed up with the natural gas and the related fuel
mixture is sent to the GT combustion chamber.
2. Exhausts section: where the GT exhausts are partially
recirculated and blown to the gasier as oxidisers for the
gasication process.

4. Effects of blowing gas turbine exhausts on the gasication

reactions
The basic idea of recirculating a fraction of GT exhausts
to the gasier is related to the exploitation of their
considerable heat content to the gasier, where endothermic reduction reactions take place. This fraction of
exhausts is mainly determined by the working conditions
of the gasier (i.e. ER). As above remarked, the CO2
content of the exhausts should favour the Bouduard
reaction [27]:
C CO2 2CO.
The reference composition and temperature of exhaust
gas is shown on Table 1.
The volumetric syngas composition vs. ER, related to
the gasication with air and GT exhausts, is shown on
Fig. 3. The gasication with exhausts leads to a more
nitrogen-diluted syngas for a xed ER, due to the lower
oxygen concentration of the exhausts (around 89%). It
leads to a lower heating value of syngas (LHVsyn) when the

Volumetric Syngas composition. wet basis

0.6
Exhausts
Air

0.55

exhausts are used, in spite of the higher adiabatic

temperature Tg, as shown on Fig. 4. On the other hand,
the adoption of the hot gas stream as oxidiser suggests the
possibility of working at lower ERs, as a consistent fraction
of the heat needed for the endothermic gasication
reactions is provided by the hot stream itself. Actually,
the conversion ratios (moles of gas species per mole of inlet
biomass) of the main syngas combustible species (H2 and
CO) increase in gasication with hot exhausts, as shown on
Fig. 5. It is mainly due to the higher inlet temperature and
to the content of steam and CO2 of the exhausts.
5. Performance analysis of the co-red GT power cycle with
integrated gasication
The analysis has been carried out referring to an
integration of syngas into natural gas to cover from 10%
to 100% of the overall GT heat rate., However, the 50%
bound is very hard to exceed, due to the extremely low
heating value of the produced syngas, which would lead the
compressorturbine system to a consistent increase in
pressure ratio, pushing the compressor toward the surge
line. As previously remarked, it would imply a deep
redesign of the expander, or, either, a consistent reduction
of maximum cycle temperature, with remarkable performance loss. As the main objective of this proposal is a
moderate reduction of CO2 emissions with reduced
interventions on the existing plant and minimisation of
the additional costs, the solutions involving deep modications to the existing equipment fall out of scope of this
work, so they have not been considered here.
In the co-red powerplant (Fig. 1), the gasication
temperature is calculated with xed ER (the reference value
is ER 0.3 in this analysis) and adiabatic reactor model,
thus the outlet gasier temperature is determined, at
chemical equilibrium, by the heat balance between
reactants and products. Even the fraction of syngas fuel
replacing natural gas (Fren) is xed (the reference value is
0.3 here). Fren is dened on heat rate basis, as the fraction
of the total gas turbine heat rate provided with biomassderived syngas:

0.5

F ren

0.45
N2

0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25

H2

CO

0.2
CO2

0.15
0.1
0.05

CH4

H2O

0
0.2

0.225 0.25 0.275

0.3
ER

0.325 0.35 0.375

0.4

Fig. 3. Syngas composition vs. ER for air and exhausts oxidisers.

555

msyn LHV syn

.
msyn LHV syn mCH4 LHV CH4

As syngas is derived from renewables, Fren is also a

measure of the saved fraction of CO2 emissions with
respect to the standard GT. ER and Fren allow the
determination of the fraction f of exhausts to be
recirculated to the gasier.
From Figs. 1 and 2, showing the reference working data
of the biomass integrated powerplant and the basic
thermodynamic data of the target GE5 gas turbine,
respectively, it is evident that the introduction of co-ring
with a moderate heat recuperation from the syngas leads to
a modest increase in electric efciency and to a reduction of
electric power output of about 10%, mainly due to the
syngas recompression. Its power demand has been kept,

ARTICLE IN PRESS
D. Fiaschi, R. Carta / Energy 32 (2007) 549567

556

1000

8000
Air
Exhausts

950

7500
7000

900

Tg [C]

Tg

6000

LHVsyn

800

5500
750
5000
700

4500

650

4000

600

3500

550

LHVsyn [kJ/Nm3]

6500

850

3000
0.2

0.225

0.25

0.275

0.3
ER

0.325

0.35

0.375

0.4

Fig. 4. Syngas LHV and adiabatic gasication temperature vs. ER for air and exhausts oxidisers.

Conversion ratio[mol/mol of biomass]

0.8

CO

H2

0.7
0.6
0.5
CO2

0.4
0.3
H2O

0.2

Air

0.1

Exhausts

CH4

0
0.2

0.225

0.25

0.275

0.3
ER

0.325

0.35

0.375

0.4

Fig. 5. Conversion ratio vs. ER for air and exhausts oxidisers.

anyway, limited by cooling the syngas down to 300 K (12 K

more than the environmental temperature, here xed at
ISO conditions). This value is below the dew point, thus the
condensation of a fraction of vapour takes place into the
SEP, with a further reduction of the power consumption of
syngas compressor, due to the reduction of the mass ow
to be recompressed of about 23%. It has also a benecial
effect on the syngas heating value, which is raised by about
10%. With 30% integration of syngas fuel, the CO2 specic
emissions are reduced by about 48% compared with
standard gas turbine, which is a very interesting result. In
order to assess the possibility of applying the cycle scheme
of Fig. 1 directly to GE5 gas turbine with no major
modications of the existing machine and with minimum
performance loss, the dimensional ow coefcient at the
turbine inlet has been calculated:
FGT

mGT
m2 ,
rGT aGT

where mGT, rGT and aGT are the inlet turbine mass
owrate, density and sound speed, respectively. The
dimensional form of the ow coefcient is here enough,
as the comparison of working conditions is referred to the
same machine. As it is seen on Figs. 1 and 2, at the
reference F ren 0:3 the increase in ow coefcient of cored powerplant relative to the design value of GE5 is
limited to about 2.5%, which allows low off design levels.
Thus, neither modications in existing equipment, nor
reduction in Tmax are required [22]. Moreover, the
volumetric hydrogen content of the natural gas/syngas
mixture at the combustion chamber inlet is about 16%,
which is well within the suggested range to achieve ame
stability and avoid back stream ame propagation [23].
Finally, the heating value of the fuel mixture to the inlet
combustion chamber is about 25% of natural gas value,
which is above the minimum required heating value for gas
turbines fuels [16,23].
The parametric analysis of co-red gas turbine vs.
fraction of renewable fuel Fren (ranging between 10% and
100%) is shown on Figs. 6 and 7. Fig. 6 reports the
behaviour of electric efciency ZEL, electric power output
WEL and specic CO2 emissions. The electric efciency and
power output show a linear decay of about 10% moving
from 10% to 100% biomass fuel, which is mainly
attributable to the increasing syngas owrate and the
subsequent increase power demand of the related compressor. Fig. 7 shows the behaviours of the heating value of
natural gas/syngas fuel mixture at combustion chamber
inlet (LHVCC) and dimensional ow coefcient at turbine
inlet relative to the nominal GE5 design value DFGE5,
dened as
DFGE5

FGT  FGE5
,
FGE5

where FGE5 is the nominal dimensional ow coefcient of

the target GE5 gas turbine (Fig. 2). This parameter has a

ARTICLE IN PRESS
557

0.6

5000

0.55

4950

0.5

4900

0.45
4850

WEL

0.4
CO2 spec. emiss.

0.35
0.3

4800
4750

EL

0.25

4700

0.2

WEL [kW]

EL.CO2spec.emiss. [kgCO2/kWh]

D. Fiaschi, R. Carta / Energy 32 (2007) 549567

4650

0.15
4600

0.1

4550

0.05

4500

0
0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5
0.6
Fren

0.7

0.8

0.9

17.5
16.5
15.5
14.5
13.5
12.5
11.5
10.5
9.5
8.5
7.5
6.5
5.5
4.5
3.5
2.5
1.5
0.5
-0.5
-1.5
-2.5

24000
22000
20000
LHVCC [kJ/kg]

18000
16000

GE5 [%]

14000
12000

LHVCC

10000
8000
6000
4000
0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5
0.6
Fren

0.7

0.8

0.9

GE5 [%]

Fig. 6. Electric efciency, electric power output and specic CO2 emissions vs. fraction of renewable fuel Fren.

Fig. 7. Behaviour of heating value of natural gas/syngas fuel mixture at combustion chamber inlet (LHVCC) and dimensional ow coefcient at turbine
inlet relative to the nominal GE5 design value (DFGE5) vs. fraction of renewable Fren.

linear increase over the whole eld, ranging from 1.5% to

about 15.5% at full renewable fuelling. The LHVCC has a
heavy drop at low levels of syngas integration and is
reduced to values lower than 20% of natural gas for Fren
higher than 0.4. This concise analysis suggests that, if the
co-red powerplant has to be built around the original gas
turbine without important changes and without appreciable reduction of performance, the value of Fren must be
kept below 0.300.35.
6. Sensitivity analysis: effect of ER and gasier injected
steam
The possibility of water recuperation from syngas at the
exit of condensing heat exchanger (SEP) is an interesting
feature of the proposed powerplant. This water, vaporised

within the HRSG, may be conveniently reinjected into the

gasier, in order to enhance the biomass conversion to
hydrogen. Otherwise, the produced steam might be used
for cogeneration purposes. The possibility of pressurising
the condensed water and inject steam into the combustion
chamber is not so convenient in this case, as the related
increase in turbine inlet mass owrate would add a
contribution to off design in the same direction of low
heating value syngas fuel. The combined effects of ER and
steam reinjection into the gasier on the electric efciency
of the power cycle are shown on Fig. 8a). Three levels are
considered: full reinjection of the produced steam, 50%
reinjection and no reinjection. Within the eld of interest
(i.e. ER 0.20.35) the efciency is only a little sensitive to
ER, showing a minimisation at ER 0.26. At low ER,
steam injection into the gasier leads to a very modest

ARTICLE IN PRESS
D. Fiaschi, R. Carta / Energy 32 (2007) 549567

790

750

Full steam injection

50% steam injection
NO steam injection

770

NO steam injection

Wcsyn [kW]

EL

0.314

780

Full steam injection

50% steam injection

700

0.316

0.312
0.31

650
760
600
750
550

740

0.308
500

0.306
0.304

730

450
0.2

(a)

0.22 0.24 0.26 0.28

ER

0.3

0.32 0.34

TCC [K]

558

0.2

0.22

0.24

0.26

0.28

0.3

0.32

720
0.34

ER

(b)

Full steam injection

50% steam injection
NO steam injection

0.2

(a)

0.22

0.24

0.26
ER

0.28

0.3

0.24
0.23
0.22
0.21
0.2
0.19
0.18
0.17
0.16
0.15
0.14
0.13
0.12
0.11
0.1

Full steam injection

50% steam injection
NO steam injection

0.2

0.32 0.34

Syngas H2 Oconcentration [%vol]

0.22
0.215
0.21
0.205
0.2
0.195
0.19
0.185
0.18
0.175
0.17
0.165
0.16
0.155
0.15
0.145
0.14

Syngas CO concentration [%vol]

Syngas H2concentration [%vol]

Fig. 8. (a) Electric efciency of the power cycle vs. ER at different levels of steam reinjection into the gasier, (b) syngas compressor power consumption
and inlet combustion chamber temperature of compressed air vs. ER at different levels of steam reinjection into the gasier.

0.22 0.24 0.26 0.28

(b)

0.3

0.3
0.28
0.26
0.24
0.22
0.2
0.18
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.1
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0

Full steam injection

50% steam injection
NO steam injection

0.2

0.32 0.34

0.22

0.24

(c)

ER

0.26

0.28

0.3

0.32

0.34

ER

Fig. 9. (a) Volumetric fraction of H2 in the syngas at the gasier outlet vs. ER at different levels of steam injection, (b) volumetric fraction of CO in the
syngas at the gasier outlet vs. ER at different levels of steam injection, (c) volumetric fraction of H2O in the syngas at the gasier outlet vs. ER at different
levels of steam injection.

1200
1150
1100
1050
Full steam injection

1000
Tg [C]

detrimental effect, whereas above 0.26 full steam injection

shows rather more consistent advantages and efciency is
improved of 0.5 points at the reference value ER 0.3.
The minimisation of the cycle efciency vs. ER is mainly
the result of two opposite effects: (I) the increased power
demand of fuel compressor at higher ER, due to the higher
syngas mass owrate, and (II) the temperature of the
compressed air at the syngas cooler outlet (which is
increased due to the higher recuperation). Below
ER 0.26 the rst one dominates, whereas at higher ER
the second one prevails. These effects are exalted with full
reinjection of steam into the gasier (Fig. 8b).
The volumetric fractions of the chemical species of the
syngas that are more sensitive to steam injection at the
gasier outlet are reported on Fig. 9, showing a slight
optimisation of hydrogen concentration at ER 0.26. This
optimisation is more evident at higher steam injection
levels (Fig. 9a). The volumetric fraction of CO decreases
with increasing ER (Fig. 9b). The vapour content of syngas
(Fig. 9c) shows an opposite behaviour with ER. These
trends are justied by observing that an increase in ER
leads to higher recirculated mass ow of exhausts and
higher gasier equilibrium temperature (due to the larger

50% steam injection

950

NO steam injectino

900
850
800
750
700
650
600
0.2

0.22

0.24

0.26

0.28

0.3

0.32

0.34

ER
Fig. 10. Gasier outlet temperature vs. ER at different levels of steam
reinjection.

extent of partial combustion reactions, see Fig. 10). As the

gas turbine pressure ratio and the approach temperature
difference between the outlet syngas (i.e. inlet HRSG) and

ARTICLE IN PRESS

msteam. mIG [kg/s]

D. Fiaschi, R. Carta / Energy 32 (2007) 549567

559

following relationship, which was introduced by Faaij:

0.9
0.85
0.8
0.75
0.7
0.65
0.6
0.55
0.5
0.45
0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0

costsize 2 =costsize 1 size2 =size1 R ,

mIG

msteam

0.2

0.22

0.24

0.26

0.28

0.3

0.32

0.34

ER
Fig. 11. Mass owrate of exhausts and steam reinjected to the gasier vs.
ER at different levels of steam reinjection.

the inlet compressed air are xed, the steam production is

increased with ER due to the higher mass owrate, thus a
larger amount of steam may be produced and sent back to
the gasier (Fig. 11). Indeed, a larger amount of water may
be condensed at SEP and thus recirculated to the gasier.
When the whole amount of this water is recirculated to the
gasier, it gives a valuable contribution to the conversion
of biomass to hydrogen at ER higher than 0.24. It is
evident on Fig. 12, reporting the volumetric fractions of
H2, CO and CO2 vs. ER, downstream the SEP, at different
steam injection levels. The optimisation of H2 concentration is conrmed at ER 0.26, whereas at high steam
injection levels the H2 and CO2 content of the syngas
(Figs. 12a and b, respectively) is enhanced, at the expenses
of CO (Fig. 12c). As the volumetric fraction of water
vapour into the syngas is constant with varying ER and
steam injection (due to the same imposed SEP outlet
temperature which leads to the same gas saturation
conditions), it can be stated that the higher content of H2
and CO2 and the lower content of CO into the syngas at
higher reinjection levels is attributable to the larger extent
of water gas shift reaction:
CO H2 O CO2 H2 .
Obviously, at higher ER, the CO2 content increases due
to the dominant effect of the combustion reactions.
On the whole, the inuence of steam injection into the
gasier on the syngas heating value is negligible at all
(Fig. 13) and is further dimmed when natural gas fuel is
added.
7. Evaluation of additional costs due to the gasication
system and analysis of the payback time
This analysis has been carried out on the basis of
literature data, which are referred to a nominal 30 MW
powerplant size [36,37] and later rescaled down with the

where R is a scale coefcient, variable within the 0.60.85

range and depending on the specic components considered.
The costs of the main additional components required
for the integration of biomass derived fuel and the related
cooling/cleaning equipment to the standard natural gasfuelled GT are reported on Table 2 and are taken directly
from published data [33,36]. When the costs are scaled
down from the reference 30 MW powerplant, which is
completely biomass fuelled, the level of biomass integration
of the present case is taken into account, considering that
the scale factor is given by the ratio between the fraction of
nominal power output produced by renewable source and
the reference 30 MW case. Thus, referring to the nominal
5 MWe, the power capacity of gasication system and the
related devices are reduced by a factor 6 multiplied by Fren
and not 6 times only, as would be if the case under study
was completely biomass fuelled.
The current cost of the 5 MW GE5 here proposed
powerplant is considered around 800 h/kW, which seems to
be a plausible value for that scale (500600 h/kW are
typical of large combined cycles [17]). The modications
required by the GT combustion chamber in order to allow
the burning of LCV syngas is considered variable with Fren
as a percentage of the gas turbine overall cost [36]:





2% for burner modication at Freno1%;

5% for replacement of burner with a dual fuel one when
1%oFreno25%;
20% for complete replacement of combustion chamber
when Fren425%.

The cost of the gas cooling equipment of the reference

30 MW plant, which is assumed on [36] to be 2.6 Mh as a
whole, here is differentiated for each component of the
syngas cooling chain and the related values are taken from
[33]. The sum of costs is well above the assumption done in
[36] and leads, probably, to an overestimation of the syngas
cooling costs, which we consider justied for two main
reasons:
1. the gas turbine recuperator is a gas/gas heat exchanger
(with typically low heat transfer efciency) which works
on a still not completely particulate cleaned gas, thus it
should be equipped with automated mechanical system
for periodical soot removal;
2. the condensing heat exchanger (SEP), which brings the
syngas below the dew point, is a well known component
in chemical industry, but the content of aggressive
substances, the managing of the condensed water
containing several contaminants and its back piping to
the gasier requires the use of special alloys, which are
rather unconventional in the heat transfer practise.

ARTICLE IN PRESS
D. Fiaschi, R. Carta / Energy 32 (2007) 549567

560

0.24

0.22
0.215

0.23

0.21
0.22

0.205

0.21
COvol. concentration

H2vol. concentration

0.2
0.195
0.191
0.185

Full steam injection

0.18

50% steam injection

0.175

NO steam injection

0.17
0.165

0.2
0.19
Full steam injection
0.18

50% steam injection

NO steam injection

0.17
0.16

0.16

0.15

0.155
0.14

0.15
0.2 0.21 0.22 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.26 0.27 0.28 0.29 0.3 0.31 0.32 0.33 0.34

(a)

0.2

0.21 0.22 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.26 0.27 0.28 0.29 0.3 0.31 0.32 0.33 0.34

(b)

ER

ER

0.135
0.13

CO2vol. concentration

0.125
0.12

Full steam injection

0.115

50% steam injection

NO steam injection

0.11
0.105
0.1
0.095
0.09
0.085
0.08

0.2 0.21 0.22 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.26 0.27 0.28 0.29 0.3 0.31 0.32 0.33 0.34

(c)

ER

LHVsyn [kJ/kg]

Fig. 12. (a) Volumetric fraction of H2 vs. ER downstream the SEP at different steam injection levels, (b) volumetric fraction of CO vs. ER downstream the
SEP at different steam injection levels, (c) volumetric fraction of CO2 vs. ER downstream the SEP at different steam injection levels.

16000
15000
14000
13000
12000
11000
10000
9000
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000

Full steam injection

50% steam injection
NO steam injection

0.2

0.22

0.24

0.26

0.28

0.3

0.32

0.34

ER
Fig. 13. Heating value of syngas at the SEP outlet and heating value of
fuel mixture at the combustion chamber inlet.

Additional costs related to biomass logistics have been

estimated, with reference to [33], in 6 h per ton of dry
biomass. The biomass scrubber might be, theoretically,

omitted, as the SEP brings the syngas under saturation

conditions and the residual particulates, alkaline metals
and ammonia should be removed here. Anyway, as such a
condensing heat exchanger is not proven to be applicable
to replace the scrubber, the latter has been accounted as
well (it might be even regarded as a way for increasing the
cost of the SEP, which is one of the most critical and
largely uncertainty affected components of the proposed
powerplant).
With the assumed data of Table 2, the cost of
gasication equipment to achieve 50% natural gas
replacement represents about 107% the total cost of gas
turbine. With integration of 30% renewable, the additional
costs of gasication island are about 95% of the whole gas
turbine. Finally, if a modest 15% of renewable is used in
co-ring, the additional costs are reduced to about 50% of
standard powerplant cost (no combustion chamber replacement is required). When the gas turbine plus gasier
equipment costs are summed, at each of the three levels of
Fren, the resulting overall powerplant costs are on line with
those extrapolated from Bridgewater regression [17] when

ARTICLE IN PRESS
D. Fiaschi, R. Carta / Energy 32 (2007) 549567
Table 2
Estimation of gasication island costs of the co-red powerplant (Mh)
R

F ren 0:5

F ren 0:3

F ren 0:15

0.6

0.080

0.059

0.039

0.8
0.8

0.9
0.043

0.6
0.029

0.35
0.017

0.7

0.055

0.039

0.024

0.7

0.49

0.34

0.21

Syngas cooling/cleaning system

Cyclones
0.7
0.38
Metal removal
0.7
0.048
Tar cracker
0.7
0.48
GT recuperator
0.7
0.48
HRSG
0.7
0.45
SEP
0.7
0.34
Scrubber
0.7
0.24
Particulate lters
0.65 0.43

0.27
0.034
0.34
0.34
0.31
0.24
0.17
0.31

0.16
0.021
0.21
0.21
0.19
0.15
0.10
0.20

Syngas recompression
Compressor
0.85

0.17

0.095

Replacement

Burner
modication

0.88
4.13

0.22
2.20

Fuel
Biomass storage
and distribution
system
Biomass dryer
Biomass
conveyors
Biomass feeding
system
Reactor
Gasier

0.26

Combustion chamber modifications

Replacement

Overall

0.88
5.56

the scaling down on the basis of biomass input is done.

Actually, the analysis of Bridgewater is referred to
pressurised gasication in large powerplants, which should
lead to higher costs than the atmospheric one here
proposed, but the economy of scale referred to this small
size should, approximately, compensate the higher specic
costs due to pressurised gasication.
The evaluation of investment protability has been
carried out referring to the payback time (PBT) of the
initial investment, which should be an effective parameter
in this analysis, considering that one of the main
attractiveness of the present proposal is the possibility of
application to existing powerplants within short term.
Even if the proposed powerplant comes out as a possible
proposal for partial ghting of greenhouse effect within the
short term, since 2002 the European Community entitles
the producers of electricity from renewables to get the
green certicates, which are additional incomes to encourage the production of electricity from renewable fuels
(Directory 2001/77/CE of European Community [38]). On
the basis of this directory, the goal of Italy is to reach 22%
energy production from renewables referred to the overall
internal consumption. To this aim, the Italian Management
of Electricity Board (GRTN, [38]) has xed the value of

561

green certicates, for the year 2005, in 108 h/MWh

produced from renewable source. The converted powerplants, or the novel ones, are entitled to get green
certicates for 8 years time from their startup. Originally,
the proposal of 2001/77/CE xed the price of green
certicates at about 80 h/MWh. They represent a fundamental income and may greatly improve the attractiveness
toward the conversion of powerplants to partial biomass
fuelling. The costs analysis here presented has been carried
out vs. variable price of green certicates from 0 to
0.1 h/kWh produced from renewable fuel.
In the recently introduced CO2 emissions trading, the
proposed power cycle may also be entitled to be a CO2
allowances seller. Given the relative uncertainties related to
emissions trading, which has not started yet, the values of
CO2 quota (here referred as Cquota symbol) are determined
on the basis of the old carbon tax, considered variable from
the last applied values (510 h/t) to possible values of
2550 h/t [39,40]. The main difference between carbon tax
and emission allowance is that the rst one considers CO2
emissions as a source of outcomes for the powerplant
management, whereas the second one sets the avoided
emissions, referred to the current levels, as a source of
outcomes to be paid. Thus, the calculations must be done
on the basis of avoided CO2 emissions, referred to a given
state of the art. The mechanism of emissions trading should
assign a specic amount of allowances to each electricity
producer. If it is able to reach lower levels, it may sell
allowances. On the contrary, if its emissions exceed the
assigned allowance limit, it is charged for the difference.
Thus, CO2 emissions quota can be regarded as a possible
income or outcome source. In the present paper, the
avoided CO2 emissions with co-red plant are referred to
the nominal emissions of GE5 gas turbine (see Fig. 2).
The average price of natural gas and biomass fuel are
assumed to be 20 and 5 ch/kg, respectively. The yearly
savings or incomes of the co-red cycle with respect to the
standard gas turbine are mainly due to three terms:
1. lower natural gas consumption;
2. sale of green certicates;
3. CO2 quota (sale of allowances and/or avoided penalties).
The sensitivity analysis of PBT vs. price of green
certicates, integrated fraction of renewable Fren and CO2
quota price has been carried out. A discount rate of 10%
and a plant working time of 7000 h/year have been
assumed. The latter, generally set at about 8000 h/year in
standard largely diffused fossil-fuelled powerplants, has
been reduced because of the uncertainty related to the
reliability and actual utilisation coefcient of some
components, such as tar cracker (that has reached a full
commercial level only recently) and syngas cooling system,
especially the sections at lower temperature.
Fig. 14 shows the behaviour of PBT vs. fraction of
renewable Fren at different values of green certicates

ARTICLE IN PRESS
D. Fiaschi, R. Carta / Energy 32 (2007) 549567

562

PBT [Years]

(ranging from 0 to 0.1 h/kWh) with xed CO2 quota at 10 h

per avoided ton referred the simple gas turbine cycle. With
increasing Fren, PBT increases at low values of Fren, then
decreases above F ren 0:25. It is due to the competition of
two effects: the investment cost, increasing with the
integrated fraction of renewable, and the incomes from
CO2 quota and green certicates, increasing with Fren. The
inuence of green certicates price is fundamental in
making PBT attractive or unattractive and, obviously, in
driving a decision about the conversion of an existing
fossil-fuelled powerplant to co-ring. Generally, within the
range of 50100 h/MWh electric power from renewable
fuel, the return of initial investment is accomplished within
a reasonable time, which varies between 1.5 and 5.5 years.
Referring to the Italian directive established by GRTN
[38], the current price of green certicates, as above
mentioned, is about 108 h/MWh from renewables. The
plant is entitled to get green certicates for eight years from
startup. This case is represented on the lowest line of
Fig. 14, and shows the appealing possibility of achieving
PBT within 1.53.5 years. The PBT is maximised, for any
price of green certicates, at 25% Fren. It is due, as above
remarked, to the assumption that the complete combustion
chamber replacement is needed when the co-ring level
exceeds 25%. When no income from green certicates is
accounted, the PBT increases dramatically and reaches
values above 10 years at Fren40.2.
The inuence of CO2 quota on PBT is shown on Fig. 15, at
three different values of Fren. Its effect on PBT is important,
but less than that due green certicates. A reduction of up to
3 years PBT is observed if CO2 quota is increased from 0 to
45 h/t. The sensitivity is higher at lower co-ring levels, due to
the less relative inuence of green certicates.
It is interesting to notice, on Fig. 16, the relative
weight of the three terms contributing to the overall yearly

10
9.5
9
8.5
8
7.5
7
6.5
6
5.5
5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1

gain of the co-red plant over the standard natural gas

red plant:
1. natural gas savings;
2. incomes from green certicates;
3. incomes (or missed outcomes) from sale of CO2
allowances.
At low Fren, the savings due to cheaper fuel and CO2
quota play a dominant role, which is exalted when low
price of green certicates is considered. Above 20% coring level, their contribution is dominant. Anyway, CO2
quota still plays an important role in reducing PBT.
8. Main uncertainties connected with the performance and
economic results of the proposed co-red power cycle
When dealing with biomass co-red powerplants, several
uncertainties affect the calculated performance and costs.
Often, they are due to the difculties in matching closely
the actual and assumed input data on which the
performance and costs analysis have been carried out.
The most important output data, on which basis the
thermodynamic and economic assessment of the powerplant is carried out, are the power output and efciency. In
the case of the proposed co-red power cycle, other
fundamental outputs (some of which are directly connected
with the main performance data) are the CO2 specic
emissions, the fraction of input power coming from
renewable source and the payback time. These parameters
are, more or less directly, affected by the uncertainties
related to the following input data:

compressor and turbine efciencies, as the existing GE5

is run under co-ring mode, thus, even if the above

GC=0 /kWh

GC= 0.05 /kWh

GC=0.08 /kWh
GC=0.1 /kWh

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25
Fren

0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

0.5

Fig. 14. Behaviour of PBT vs. fraction of renewable Fren at different values of green certicates.

ARTICLE IN PRESS

PBT [years]

D. Fiaschi, R. Carta / Energy 32 (2007) 549567

4.6
4.4
4.2
4
3.8
3.6
3.4
3.2
3
2.8
2.6
2.4
2.2
2
1.8
1.6
1.4

563

Fren=0.5

Fren=0.15
Fren =0.3

10

15

20
25
Cquota [ /t]

30

35

40

45

Relative contribution to yearly incomes [%]

Fig. 15. Inuence of CO2 quota on PBT at three different values of Fren.

80
75

GC=0.05 /kWh

Savings due to green certificates [%]

GC=0.08 /kWh

70
65
60

GC=0.1 /kWh

55
50
45
Savings due toCO2quota [%]

40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

Savings due to cheaper fuel [%]

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25
Fren

0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

0.5

Fig. 16. Relative weight of the green certicates, CO2 quota and fuel cost to the overall yearly gain of the co-red plant over the standard natural gas-red
plant at different levels of green certicates price.

analysis has shown no high off design levels at moderate

integration of biomass fuel, some performance loss in
compressor and turbine have to be expected. To keep
them into account, an uncertainty of 5% on the
reference assumed values (refer to Table 1) has been
adopted.
Syngas temperature at the SEP outlet (TOSEP), as actual
reliability of this component at commercial level has to
be proven yet. It affects the powerplant performance
through the power consumption of syngas compressor
(directly related to TOSEP, which represents the inlet
temperature). Referring to the basic value of Fig. 1, a
possible uncertainty of 720 K has been assumed.

Pressure losses on the syngas cooling line, as the

progressive accumulation of soot can lead to some
plugging effects. It should be minimised by periodical
cleaning (manual or automated), but a 20% relative
uncertainty referred to the Dp/p values of Table 2 has
been assumed.
Biomass availability (here accounted as an uncertainty
on input biomass owrate mbio), as the proposed cored cycle, when working at the reference F ren 0:3,
needs the remarkable amount of 7200 tons of biomass
per year. It implies a very accurate evaluation of the
available resource at acceptable distance from the
powerplant site. Thus, a uctuation of 20% availability

ARTICLE IN PRESS

5.28
0.31
10.28
1.91
2.61
33.52
7.91
0.54
8.05
9.72
0
0
0
0
0
25.40
62.62
25.93
39.99
76.30
0.16
0.03
37.07
94.46
93.91
8.04
21.68
53.52
47.51
1.04
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.82
0.60
0.56
0
0
0.01
0
0.18
0.08
0.01
ZEL
WEL (kW)
CO2 spec. emiss. (gXkWh)
Fren
LHVCC (kJXkg)
GCH4 (khXY)
GCO2 (khXY)
Ggreen (khXY)
GTOT (khXY)
PBT (Y)

0.308370.0403
48977781.6
425.7765.98
0.300170.0642
1228871927
380.27107.8
168.6730.43
822.87230.8
13727309.9
3.10470.583

Relative contributions to uncertainties on output parameters (%)

52.16
19.23
22.34
0
0
69.43
13.70
15.92
0
0
23.42
13.26
15.40
0
0
3.61
0.01
0.01
0
0
3.47
0
0
0
0
32.88
0.07
0.08
0
0
7.76
0.02
0.02
0
0
10.84
4.16
4.83
0
0
0.03
2.00
2.33
0
0
12.62
0.15
0.17
0
0

ToSEP
300720
hY
700071000
mbio
0.288770.0577
LpSEP
0.0570.01
LpREC
0.0370.06
LpHRSG
0.0570.01
Lpgas
0.0370.06
Zpt
0.870.04
Zpnc
0.93770.047
Zpc
0.870.04

The effects of the above-listed uncertainties on the main

thermodynamic performance, yearly gains over the reference natural gas-red GT cycle and payback time of the cored powerplant are shown on Table 3. On the rst up row,
the reference values of the basic assumed working
parameters and the related uncertainties are reported.
On the rst left column, the power cycle performance,
yearly incomes terms and PBT at the reference conditions,
together with the related propagated uncertainties,
are shown. On the other cells, the percentage relative
contributions of uncertainties of the basic data on
each thermodynamic and economic output parameter
are reported. It is clear that the electric efciency
and power output suffer of compressor performance
reduction (i.e. due to off design). Among all the considered
variables affected by the given uncertainties, the compressor polytropic efciency contributes by 52% to the
uncertainty of power cycle efciency, 69% to the uncertainty of power output and 23% on CO2 specic
emissions. As these variables are directly connected with
fuel consumption, the savings due to reduced natural gas
consumption, CO2 emissions and incomes from green
certicates are affected as well, respectively by 32%, 7.7%
and 10.8%.
The contribution of the uncertainty on polytropic
turbine efciency (cooled and non-cooled sections Zpnc
and Zpt) to the uncertainty on cycle efciency and power
output are rather smaller than that due to uncertainty on
compressor efciency and are on the order of 20% for the
rst one and 15% for the second one. The uncertainties on
Zpnc and Zpt weigh 15% on the overall uncertainty of CO2
specic emissions. The mostly affected economic parameters is the income from green certicates sale (Ggreen), as
a lower amount of power is produced.
Another important thermodynamic variable, which may
be a source of uncertainties due to the rather unconventional component it is connected to and the nature of
biomass and its kind and content of contaminants, tars,
metals, ashes and so on, is the temperature at SEP outlet
(T0SEP). Besides to the heat exchanger role, it has to allow
the nal cleaning of syngas, with partially (or even totally)
replacing the function of scrubber. The uncertainty on

Input variable7uncertainty

is accounted in the uncertainty analysis. It reects

directly on the incomes from green certicates and CO2
quota, as lower amounts can be sale.
Yearly number of working hours (hY), due to the higher
complexity and unpredictable events related to the
management of the gasier and the syngas cleaning
system, which depend also on variables that are difcult
to predict with high accuracy, such as the biomass
composition, ashes content, kind of contaminants and
so on. All these factors may lead to a consistent
variability of the number of plant stops during the year.
The possibility of having 1000 h/year absolute uncertainty, referred to the basic 7000 h/year working time
here assumed, has been taken into account.

Output variable7uncertainty

D. Fiaschi, R. Carta / Energy 32 (2007) 549567

Table 3
Effects of the uncertainties of the basic data on the uncertainties of thermodynamic and economic outputs of co-red cycle and relative percentage inuence of each input on the outputs

564

ARTICLE IN PRESS
D. Fiaschi, R. Carta / Energy 32 (2007) 549567

T0SEP reects directly on the power consumption of the

syngas compressor, thus on the efciency and CO2
emissions of the power cycle. An uncertainty of 720 K
gives an overall contribution of 5% on the uncertainty of
net electric efciency and around 10% on the uncertainty
of CO2 specic emissions. The highest relative contribution
of uncertainty on T0SEP is on the natural gas savings, which
are affected by 33%, that is the same level as compressor
efciency. The inuence on the uncertainty of incomes (or
missed outcomes) due to CO2 quota is almost 8%, as well
as on the overall yearly incomes (GTOT).
The uncertainty on biomass availability over the working time of the powerplant has the biggest inuence on the
uncertainty of co-ring level (94% on Fren) and, obviously,
on CO2 specic emissions (37%), which reduction is solely
linked to the use of renewable fuel. The uncertainty on
biomass availability has a minor effect on the other
performance parameters like electric power output and
efciency. On the contrary, they might improve due to the
reduced off design level (LCVCC is positively inuenced).
Obviously, the uncertainty of biomass availability has the
biggest effect on the uncertainty of the main estimated
economic parameters, giving a contribution of 8% on the
natural gas savings, 21% on incomes (or missed outcomes)
from sale of CO2 quota and 53% on the incomes from sale
of green certicates. The overall effect of the uncertainty on
biomass availability on the uncertainty of yearly incomes
of co-red powerplant over the basic natural gas-red GT
amounts to about 47.5%. It means that an accurate
estimation of the biomass availability over the time is a
fundamental issue to assure the economic return of the
investment, as the incomes are closely connected to the
actual use of renewable fuel.
The uncertainty on number of yearly working hours of
the powerplant only affects the economic parameters: it is
responsible for 25% uncertainty on natural gas savings,
62% on incomes from CO2 quota, 26% on green
certicates and, nally, 40% on the overall yearly incomes.
Moreover, it contributes to more than 76% of the
uncertainty on PBT. It means that the reliability of
powerplant components to avoid stops is a major issue
for the protability of the investment. Thus, an accurate
selection of input biomass even regarding ash melting
point, type and content of contaminants and potential tar
production, as well as an accurate design of the most
critical components are of primary importance to avoid
large uncertainties on the actual exploitation of powerplant
potential electricity production.
The relative uncertainty on PBT due to the uncertainties
on the considered input parameters is rather remarkable.
Anyway, its absolute value amounts to half year for the
reference case, which is a denitely low uncertainty in the
analysis of investments. It means that the uncertainties on
the input parameters have, in practise, a modest effect on
PBT but a large effect on the powerplant performance and
protability once the initial investments for the conversion
to co-ring is paid off.

565

The inuences of uncertainties on pressure losses of the

heat exchangers are negligible on practically all of the
parameters. Only that of recuperator has a very modest
inuence, which, however, is below 1%.
On the whole, we can say that the uncertainty on
compressor efciency is the main source of uncertainty on
net power output and efciency, while the uncertainty of
turbine efciency has about half contribution. The relative
inuence on the uncertainty of economic parameters is
modest compared to the effects of uncertainties on biomass
availability and yearly number of working hours. The
uncertainty on outlet SEP temperature is important on
thermodynamic and economic parameters, as it inuences
directly the syngas compressor power.
9. Conclusions
A relatively not complex solution for reducing a fraction
ranging from 10% to 50% of CO2 emissions from gas
turbine-based powerplants has been proposed. It adopts an
integrated gasication system, which recirculates a small
fraction of the oxygen-rich exhausts to the gasier, in order
to exploit their heat content and partially sustain the
endothermic reduction reactions. In spite of the higher
amount of gas ow required with respect to air gasication
due to the lower oxygen concentration, the related heat
content and, partially, the larger reducing capacity of
uegas due to presence of CO2, lead to an increase of
biomass to syngas fuel conversion ratio.
When compared to the standard gas turbine, the co-red
cycle with 30% integrated biomass fuel exhibits the same
level of efciency with a drop in power output of about
810%, mainly due to the syngas fuel recompression. Its
power consumption is considerably reduced with the
adoption of syngas condensing cooler (SEP), which brings
the temperature close to the environmental value. The SEP
also helps in the nal process of syngas cleaning, being
able, in principle but probably not yet in practise, to
replace the scrubbing with external cooling water.
The ow coefcient at the gas turbine inlet, here adopted
as a rst approach parameter to predict the off design level
of the co-red machine, shows an increase of about 2.5%
above the GE5 design value, which seems to be acceptable
to avoid redesign of the compressor and turbine and
important performance losses. The heating value and the
overall hydrogen concentration of the syngas plus natural
gas fuel mixture fall within the acceptable limits for gas
turbines.
The recycle of the steam produced from condensed
contaminated water into the gasier allows a drastic
reduction of the problems related to the managing,
treatment and disposal of wastewater. Moreover, the
reinjection of steam into the gasier enhances the hydrogen
concentration of the syngas.
Even if the primary idea of the proposed co-red cycle
was to try a way for reducing CO2 emissions from
gas turbine-based powerplants without redesign or

ARTICLE IN PRESS
566

D. Fiaschi, R. Carta / Energy 32 (2007) 549567

replacement of the existing equipment, an economically

fundamental feature is the possibility of getting green
certicates, which gives a great contribution to return of
the initial investment. The economic analysis shows that
the proposed solution might be applied to the existing
powerplant within the very short time, as it allows the
recuperation of the initial investment within 24 years at
the current levels of green certicate price and CO2 quota.
The rst ones play a dominant role when the integration of
fuel from renewables is above 25%.
The main uncertainties connected with the proposed
analysis are those related to the compressor and turbine
efciencies, due to the possible off design conditions, and
to the biomass availability and powerplant yearly working
time: the rst ones have direct consequences on the
uncertainty of estimated power output, efciency and
CO2 emissions, whereas the second ones affect the
uncertainties on the evaluation of co-red powerplant
protability. Finally, the uncertainty on SEP outlet
temperature inuences the uncertainties of both economic
and thermodynamic parameters.

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