Comparison of externally fired and internal combustion gas turbines using biomass fuel

There is a difference of opinion regarding the relative merits of gas turbines using biomass fuels. Some engineers believe that the internal combustion gas turbine coupled to a gasifier will give a higher efficiency than the externally fired gas turbine using pretreated biomass that is not gasified. Others believe the opposite. In this paper, a comparison between these schemes is made, within the framework of the Brazilian perspective. The exergetic analysis of four cycles is described. The first cycle is externally fired (EFGT), the second uses gasified biomass as fuel (BIG/GT), each of them with a combined cycle as a variant (EFGT/CC and BIG/GTCC). These four are then compared to the natural gas turbine cycles (NGT and NGT/CC) in order to evaluate the thermodynamic cost of using biomass. The comparison is carried out in terms of thermal efficiency and in terms of exergetic efficiency and exergy destruction in the main components. The present analysis shows that the EFGT is quite promising. When compared to the NGT cycle, the EFGT gas turbine shows poor efficiency, though this parameter, practically equals that of the BIG/GT cycle. The use of a bottoming steam cycle changes the figures, and the EFGT/CC-due to its higher exhaust temperature-results in high efficiency compared to the BIG/GTCC. Its lower initial and maintenance cost may be an important attraction.