Effect of O2 Transport Membrane and CO2 Capture Membranes on the Performance of the Biomass-Based Power Generation: An Artificial Intelligence Based Multi-Objective Optimization and Techno-Economic and Environmental Evaluation

Abstract
One of the most important causes of global warming is the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas into the atmosphere due to the production of electricity to meet the global community\'s need for energy. The main goal of this research is to present a power generation system based on biomass gasification equipped with a membrane-based carbon capture system. In this system, a gasifier and an oxygen transport membrane (OTM) were coupled with each other to produce pure O2 as a gasification agent. Moreover, a three-membrane system is considered to separate CO2 from combustion gases coming out of the combined Brayton-Rankin cycle. The desired system has been carefully examined from a thermodynamic outlook. In the next step, the cost of electricity has been obtained by using a detailed economic study, taking into account the life of the employed membranes. Finally, by using artificial intelligence (AI)-based multi-objective optimization, the presented system has been optimized from the economic point of view and thermodynamic performance. The results of this research show that the use of OTM to produce pure oxygen as a gasification agent leads to a 53% improvement in the heating value of the produced fuel compared to the use of air (without OTM). Furthermore, the use of CO2 capture membranes (CCM) led to the reduction of annual CO2 emissions from 50.41 Mkg to 9.9 Mkg. According to the Pareto front, the results obtained from the minimization of the electricity cost and the maximization of the net power production showed that the minimum electricity cost and the maximum produced power were 0.4275 $/kWh and 7039 kW, respectively. It can be acknowledged that the optimization and the addition of the carbon capture system in the carbon tax of 303$/Tonne-CO2 (and more than that) not only can produce electricity at a lower cost, but also reduce the amount of CO2 emission from 50.43 million kilograms per year to of 6.9 million kilograms per year.

Author
Nashwan A. OTHMAN

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2023.124401

Publisher
Separation and Purification Technology

ISSN

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