Techno-economic assessment of FT unit for synthetic diesel production in existing stand-alone biomass gasification plant using process simulation tool

For alternative thermo-chemical conversion process route via gasification, biomass can be gasified to produce syngas (mainly CO and H2). On more applications of utilization, syngas can be used to synthesize fuels through the catalytic process option for producing synthetic liquid fuels such as Fischer-Tropsch (FT) diesel.

The embedding of the FT plant into the stand-alone based on power mode plants for production of a synthetic fuel is a promising practice, which requires an extensive adaptation of conventional techniques to the special chemical needs found in a gasified biomass. Because there are currently no plans to engage the FT process in Thailand, the authors have targeted that this work focus on improving the FT configurations in existing biomass gasification facilities (10 MWth).

A process simulation model for calculating extended unit operations in a demonstrative context is designed by commercial software. The aim of this work is to develop detailed process flow diagram for the FT technology in order to subsequently study the economic feasibility based on once-Through mode.

A cost analysis is performed to find out the convenience of the proposed solutions.