Techno-Economic Analysis of Power Production by Using Waste Biomass Gasification

• Published in: Journal of Power and Energy Engineering
• Main Authors: Safarian, Sahar, Unnthorsson, Runar, Richter, Christiaan
• Other Authors: Iðnaðarverkfræði-, vélaverkfræði- og tölvunarfræðideild (HÍ), Faculty of Industrial Eng., Mechanical Eng. and Computer Science (UI), Verkfræði- og náttúruvísindasvið (HÍ), School of Engineering and Natural Sciences (UI), Háskóli Íslands, University of Iceland
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Scientific Research Publishing, Inc. 2020
• Subjects: Waste Biomass Gasification; Techno-Economic Analysis; Power Production; Waste to Energy; Úrgangur; Orkuframleiðsla; Rekstrarhagræðing; Iceland
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/1887; https://doi.org/10.4236/jpee.2020.86001

Publisher's version (útgefin grein) Energy recovery from waste biomass can have significant impacts on the most pressing development challenges of rural poverty and environmental damages. In this paper, a techno-economic analysis is carried out for electricity generation by using timber and wood waste (T & WW) gasification in Iceland. Different expenses were considered, like capital, installation, engineering, operation and maintenance costs and the interest rate of the investment. Regarding to revenues, they come from of the electricity sale and the fee paid by the Icelandic municipalities for waste collection and disposal. The economic feasibility was conducted based on the economic indicators of net present value (NPV) and discounted payback period (DPP), bringing together three different subgroups based on gasifier capacities, subgroup a: 50 kW, subgroup b: 100 kW and subgroup c: 200 kW. The results show that total cost increases as the implemented power is increased. This indicator varies from 1228.6 k€ for subgroups a to 1334.7 k€ for subgroups b and 1479.5 k€ for subgroups c. It is worth mentioning that NPV is positive for three subgroups and it grows as gasifier scale is extended. NPV is about 122 k€ (111,020 $), 1824 k€ (1,659,840 $) and 4392 k€ (3,996,720 $) for subgroups a, b and c, respectively. Moreover, DPP has an inversely proportional to the installed capacity. It is around 5.5 years (subgroups a), 9.5 months (subgroups b) and 6 months (subgroups c). The obtained results confirm that using small scale waste biomass gasification integrated with power generation could be techno-economically feasible for remote area in Iceland. This paper was a part of the project funded by Icelandic Research Fund (IRF), (in Icelandic: Rannsoknasjodur) and the grant number is 196458-051. Peer Reviewed