Performance Assessment of Waste Coal and Torrefied Pine Biomass Co-Fired Power Plants With Carbon Capture and Storage Technologies

Abstract Climate change is a prominent global concern that has recently received significant attention. Approximately 60% of the fuel used in generating electricity in the US consists of coal, natural gas, and petroleum fuels, which contribute to global warming. Co-firing refers to the combustion of biomass, such as wood chips or agricultural waste, together with residual coal in power plants to generate energy. Due to its lower carbon footprint and potential to contribute to achieving zero carbon emissions, the utilization of biomass for heat and electricity generation is experiencing significant growth. This study aims to assess the performance and emission characteristics of torrefied biomass and waste coal co-fired Net 100 MW subcritical power plants using the power plant modeling software STEAM PRO. The considered feedstocks for this study are anthracite waste coal and torrefied loblolly pine biomass. The performance and emissions of the co-fired plants were analyzed at different co-firing ratios with and without the incorporation of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. The results show that at higher torrefied biomass co-firing ratios, the net plant efficiency of the co-fired plants increases while the plant total emissions of the co-fired plants gradually decrease, such as at 100% biomass CFB-fired power plants, the net plant efficiency increases by around 3.34% while the plant total CO2 emissions decrease by approximately 9.76% compared to 100% coal-fired case. The incorporation of CCS results in a significantly negligible value of the plant total emissions but reduces the net plant efficiency of the plant due to the additional load required to operate CCS.