Small Scale Biomass-Fired CHP System

该项目旨在开发一种新型的、首个10kWe生物质燃烧的热电联产(CHP)系统，适用于公共和大型家庭建筑。该项目的具体目标是：(1)证明生物质燃烧发电与有机朗肯涡轮循环相结合的概念适用于小至10千瓦的生物质燃料热电联产系统；(2)设计、建造和评估首个同类的10千瓦生物质热电联产系统；(3)为拟议的10千瓦生物质热电联产系统开发一个计算机模型。对于各种公共和大型住宅建筑物，热电联产可以提供一种比传统方法(如燃气锅炉供热和电网供电)对环境危害更小的经济供热和发电方法。然而，市场上几乎所有的热电联产系统都以化石燃料为燃料，主要是天然气和石油。为了进一步减少公共和大型住宅建筑的能源使用所产生的温室气体排放，必须使用基于可再生燃料的热电联产系统，例如生物质。基于燃烧和蒸汽朗肯涡轮循环相结合的生物质发电是目前最先进的技术。然而，蒸汽驱动的朗肯汽轮机发电不适合于100kW以下的生物质发电或热电联产系统，因为它固有的发电效率低，投资成本高。适用于公共和大型住宅建筑的生物质发电机或热电联产系统(约10千瓦)在世界上任何地方都不存在。为了满足公共和大型住宅建筑领域预期不断增长的市场需求，迫切需要开发一种新的生物质燃料热电联产系统(约10kWe)。新的10kWe级生物质燃料系统的开发必须采用新的发电概念，以确保热电联产系统安全、可靠、高效率和低资本成本。这个合作项目中提出的热电联产系统具有以下创新特点：(1)这将是同类系统中的第一个；(2)它使用生物质燃烧和有机朗肯循环(ORC)相结合的方式发电。这将是首次将基于ORC的发电应用于小至10千瓦的生物质燃料热电联产系统。(3)生物质锅炉和有机朗肯汽轮机循环通过热油加热循环而不是水/蒸汽加热循环进行耦合。(4)所提出的热电联产系统采用了一种新型的、经济的ORC水轮机。ORC涡轮机将由一种廉价的现成制冷压缩机改装而成。对2kWe级机组的初步测试表明，这种新型的ORC涡轮机不仅比以前研究中使用的更经济，而且更高效和更可靠。(5)ORC过程中将只考虑环境友好型工作流体。拟议的项目可能表明一种可行的、可商业开发的产品，这将直接使申请者及其项目合作伙伴受益，他们将与申请者在欧洲的机构合作，利用拟议研究的结果。拟议的研究还将使学术界以及包括生物质技术和涡轮机技术在内的几个工业部门受益。它将对小型生物质供暖和热电联产系统以及小型ORC涡轮机的发展产生直接影响。该项目的长期效益包括为公共和大型住宅建筑部门提供更可持续的热电联产，以及保护全球环境。

The project aims to develop a novel, first-of-its-kind 10 kWe biomass-fired combined heat and power (CHP) system suitable for public and large domestic buildings' application. The specific objectives of the project are:(1) To prove that the concept of power generation through biomass combustion combined with an organic Rankine turbine cycle is suitable for biomass-fuelled CHP systems as small as 10 kWe;(2) To design, construct and evaluate the first-of-its-kind 10 kWe biomass-fired CHP system;(3) To develop a computer model for the proposed 10 kWe biomass-fired CHP system.Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is the on-site generation of electricity and the utilisation of the heat that is a by-product of the generation process. For a wide range of public and large domestic buildings, CHP can offer an economical method of providing heat and power which is less environmentally harmful than conventional methods (e.g. heat supplied by a gas boiler and electricity supplied by the grid). However, almost all of the CHP systems on the market are fuelled by fossil fuels, mainly natural gas and oil. To further reduce greenhouse emissions resulted from the energy use in public and large domestic buildings, CHP systems based on renewable fuels, such as biomass, have to be used. Generating electricity from biomass based on combustion combined with a steam Rankine turbine cycle is the most developed technology at the present time. However, the steam-driven Rankine turbine power generation is not suitable for biomass generators or CHP systems smaller than 100 kWe because of its inherent low electricity generation efficiency and high capital costs. Biomass generators or CHP systems suitable for use in public and large domestic buildings (in the order of 10 kWe) are not available anywhere in the world. To meet the expected increasing market demand from the sector of public and large domestic buildings, a new biomass-fuelled CHP system (ca. 10kWe) has to be developed as a matter of urgency. The new 10kWe-rated biomass-fuelled system has to be developed with a new concept of power generation which ensures the CHP system to be safe, reliable, of high efficiency and of low capital costs. The CHP system proposed in this collaborative project has the following innovative features:(1) It will be the first-of-its kind;(2) It uses biomass combustion combined with an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) to generate electricity. It will be the first time that the ORC-based power generation is applied to a biomass-fuelled CHP system as small as 10 kWe.(3) The biomass boiler and the organic Rankine turbine cycle are coupled via a thermal oil heating cycle instead of a water/steam heating cycle. (4) A novel, economical ORC turbine is used with the proposed CHP system. The ORC turbine is to be modified from a cheap, bought off the shelf, refrigerant compressor. The preliminary tests on the 2kWe-rated unit have indicated that this new type of ORC turbine is not only more economical but also more efficient and more reliable than those used in the previous studies.(5) Only environment-friendly working fluids will be considered in the ORC process.The proposed project is likely to indicate a viable, commercially exploitable product and this will directly benefit the applicants and their partners of the project who will exploit the outcomes of the proposed research in collaboration with the applicants' institutions in Europe. The proposed research will also benefit academia, and several industrial sectors including biomass technology and turbine technology. It will have a direct impact on the development of small-scale biomass heating and CHP systems and small-scale ORC-turbines. The long term benefits of the project include more sustainable CHP generation for the sector of public and large domestic buildings and protection of the global environment.