Energetic, Economic and Environmental Performance Analysis of a Micro-Combined Cooling, Heating and Power (CCHP) System Based on Biomass Gasification

In this paper, the performance of an innovative micro-combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) system, based on an internal combustion engine fueled with syngas from woody biomass, is analyzed. In particular, a numerical model, which considers a direct coupling between the internal combustion engine and the gasifier as a novel aspect, was developed, validated and applied to three different case studies to perform an energetic, economic and environmental analysis. For each considered case, the CCHP system was equipped with a reversible electric air-water pump and a back-up boiler. The energy analysis shows that the user characterized by a high uniformity of the thermal load exploits the CCHP system in the optimal way as it allows for the highest thermal self-consumption rate. On the contrary, for the cases in which the thermal request is not uniform, a high electric surplus is recorded. In this case, the adoption of the heat pump allows to compensate for this disadvantage by recovering the electric surplus, thus achieving a thermal integration and CO2 emissions reduction of about 15.8% with respect to the case in which no heat pump is used. Overall, the results demonstrate the affordability of the biomass-based CCHP system, which is of increasing importance in this period of contingent international political crisis.

Automated summary

This paper analyzes the performance of an innovative micro-combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) system fueled by syngas from woody biomass. A numerical model is developed to conduct an energetic, economic, and environmental analysis. The results show that the system is most efficiently utilized when the thermal load is uniform. However, in cases of non-uniform thermal demand, there is an electric surplus. The use of a heat pump can compensate for this issue and significantly reduce CO2 emissions.