Economic analysis of energy production from coal/biomass upgrading; Part 1: Hydrogen production

ABSTRACT

Hydrogen production by steam-gasification is an interesting method compared to other common methods which has a wide range of applications including Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells and gas engines. The current research was aimed to provide a detailed economic study on gasification of biomass and coal for syngas and hydrogen production using the Aspen Plus software. The effect of plant size on hydrogen selling price was evaluated from biomass, coal, and biomass-coal gasification. With the plant size increasing from 200 tonnes/day to 400 tonnes/day, the hydrogen selling price decreased sharply from 11.5 to 9.1 $/m³ for biomass, from 10.4 to 8.2 $/m³ for coal, and from 10.1 to 7.7 $/m³ which means that the particle size has a key role in the process, and operation in larger plants is more affordable.

Keywords:

• Biomass
• coal
• biomass-coal
• hydrogen
• economics

Nomenclatures

COM	=	Combustor
DRYER	=	Dryer
HT/LT	=	High temperature/Low temperature
METH_SYNTH_REAC	=	Methanol synthesis reactor
PYR	=	Pyrolysis
SEPCOLMN	=	Separator column
VM	=	Volatiles
WGSR	=	Water-gas shift reactor

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by Foreign Experts Affairs Bureau of Henan Province