Date of Award

12-2004

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Program

Engineering

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Major Professor

Wang, Ting

Second Advisor

Hall, Carsie

Third Advisor

Akyuzlu, Kazim

Fourth Advisor

Guillot, Martin

Abstract

Conversion of biomass to energy does not contribute to the net increase of carbon dioxide in the environment, therefore the use of biomass waste as a clean and renewable fuel source is an attractive alternative to the use of fossil fuels. Biomass can be converted to energy via direct combustion or via thermo-chemical conversion to liquid or gas fuels. This study focuses on employing gasification technology to convert biomass waste to producer gas, which is then cleaned and fed as gaseous fuel into the gas turbine. Since the producer gases are usually low caloric values, the power plants performance under various operating conditions has not yet been proven. In this study, system performance calculations are conducted for a 5MWe and a 20MWe power plants using commercial software ThermoFlow. The power plants considered including simple gas turbine systems, steam turbine systems, combined cycle systems, and steam injection gas turbine systems (STIG) using the producer gas with low caloric values at approximately 30% and 15% of the natural gas heating value. The low caloric value fuels are shown to impose high back compressor pressure and increased power output due to increased fuel flow. Power augmentations under four different weather conditions are also calculated by employing gas turbine inlet fog cooling. Different capacity options for the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) that provides the steam for STIG are analyzed.

Rights

The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.

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