Fuel quality impact analysis for practical implementation of corn COB gasification gas in conventional gas turbine power plants

Practical implementation of alternative fuels in gas turbine facilities is a challenging step towards cleaner and more responsible energy production. Despite numerous technical, economical and legal obstacles, possibilities for partial or complete substitution of fossil fuels are still subject of profound research. From all possible solutions, one with high acceptance is the symbiosis of existing gas turbine technologies and new ways of waste biomass energy utilization through firing or co – firing of biomass gasification gas. Therefore, the practical implementation of corn cob gasification gas with CO2 recirculation in gas turbines is analyzed in this paper. The followed methodology approaches this solution through two different scenarios each with 5 different cases. In the first scenario fuel mass flows are kept constant regardless of the fuel quality change consequence of the corn cob gas share, while in the second scenario fuel volume flows are assumed constant. Fuel quality refers to fuel composition which affects heat capacity, as well as physical and chemical characteristics of fuel. Impact of fuel composition changes on combustion product characteristics was analyzed using CHEMKIN PRO with GRI–Mech 3.0. Finally, fuel quality impacts on a gas turbine power plant performance are analyzed using a numerical model of a physical cycle that enables the simulation of a 3.9 MW experimentally correlated gas turbine. The results show that utilization of corn cob gasification gas is possible through co-firing with natural gas with acceptable values without modification of the fuel system or gas turbine.