Title: Thermo-economic analysis of a biomass-fired bubbling fluidised bed thermal power plant

Authors: Rajeev Kamal Sharma; Saroj Kumar Mohapatra

Addresses: School of Mechanical Engineering, Chitkara University, Rajpura, Punjab 140401, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Thapar University, Patiala, Punjab 147004, India

Abstract: Biomass-fired fluidised bed combustors are becoming popular in the agricultural countries like India. In this paper, a comprehensive thermo-economic analysis of a 7.5 MW biomass-fired bubbling fluidised bed thermal power plant has been presented. The energy and the exergy-based models have been formulated for the power plant. It has been found that for evaluating the performance of the biomass-fired power plant, compared to the energy model, the exergy model gives more reliable and accurate results. The boiler is found to be the source of the maximum exergy destruction and its design needs a revision. A break-even economic analysis of the power plant also has been conducted and various means of enhancing the profit have been suggested.

Keywords: exergy analysis; economic analysis; biomass fired power plants; fluidised bed; thermal power plants; thermo-economic analysis; energy analysis; boiler design; exergy destruction.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEX.2016.078504

International Journal of Exergy, 2016 Vol.21 No.1, pp.1 - 20

Received: 18 Jul 2015
Accepted: 01 Dec 2015

Published online: 22 Aug 2016 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article