Electricity production by biomass steam gasification using a high efficiency technology and low environmental impact

Abstract The integration of biomass gasification and fuel cell represents in theory an energy effective solution for decentralised CHP production. At the ENEA Research Centre of Trisaia the direct coupling of an existing biomass gasification pilot plant to a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) with a capacity of 125 kWe is in progress. Being pressurised at 3.5 bar, MCFC shall be combined to a gas turbine in order to establish an efficient process scheme for its industrial scale application. Assuming an optimised gas composition, free of methane and other light hydrocarbons, an overall conversion efficiency minor to 40% is estimated via an appositely developed model based on thermodynamic models. Even this value is one-third higher with respect to conventional gasification for decentralised CHP production, the commercial perspective of the proposed technology still proves to be modest, unless remarkable improvements in stack conversion efficiency, durability and cost are achieved, as well as an impressive plant simplification. The main goal of the paper is the integration of a biomass steam gasification plant with a molten carbonate fuel cell with the advantage of a power production plant with a low CO 2 emission compared with the traditional power generator fuelled by fossil.