Biomass Gasification Combined Cycle Opportunities Using the Future Energy SilvaGas® Gasifier Coupled to Alstom’s Industrial Gas Turbines

Abstract

The last two decades have seen a rapid increase in the use of land based gas turbines. To a large extent, this use has been a result of the availability of natural gas at low prices which has in turn facilitated the development of high efficiency low-cost turbines designed to utilize this high value, clean energy source. Recent fluctuations in fuel prices, however, have rekindled interest in alternatives to these natural gas based systems. Transforming solid fuels such as biomass into gas so that they can substitute for natural gas provides the opportunity to enhance the efficiency of biomass based power systems by allowing the solid fuels to be used in high efficiency power generation cycles such as Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) processes. This paper discusses the use of Future Energy Resources’s (FERCO’s) SilvaGas® biomass gasification process as the key element in an advanced biomass power system based integrated with Alstom’s small industrial gas turbines in an advanced gas turbine combined cycle system. Operating experience with the SilvaGas process at commercial scale is discussed along with projected IGCC process efficiencies utilizing a range of biomass materials.