Rajesh S. Kempegowda

Cost modeling approach and economic analysis of biomass gasification integrated solid oxide fuel cell systems

This paper presents a cost modeling approach and the economic feasibility for selected plant configurations operating under three modes: air gasification, mixed air-steam gasification, and steam gasification combined cycle solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) systems. In this study, three cases of biomass gasification integrated SOFC without combined cycle (base case 1) are compared with biomass gasification integrated SOFC-gas turbine (GT) with heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) hybrid configuration (case 2) and biomass gasification integrated SOFC-steam turbine (ST) cycle (case 3) for biomass feed stock. The plant design cases of integrated biomass gasification processes, SOFC, and combined cycles are investigated primarily employing aspen plus™ flow sheeting models. Based on the mass and energy balance results of the system simulations, the economic model calculates the size and cost estimates for the plant configuration equipments. Detailed purchase cost estimations for each piece of equipments and the corr...

Hydrochar slurry fuels and high-grade activated carbon for electricity production and storage Conceptual process design and analysis

This paper describes and analyzes a conceptual design of a bioenergy system for sustainable electricity production from low-grade biomass resources such as forest and agricultural residues, which is suitable for rural areas in developing regions susceptible to intermittent electricity supply. In order to make it a closed-loop system, the paper also identifies a bio-refining strategy focusing on production of high-grade activated carbons for energy storage using supercapacitor.