Analysis of investment incentives for power generation based on an integrated plasma gasification combined cycle power plant using municipal solid waste

Municipal solid waste (MSW) high generation rate and final disposal are major issues for societies worldwide. In Colombia, projections warn about potential sanitary emergencies by 2030 due to similar to 30% of current landfill short life span (0-3 years). Thus, this work aimed to assess the technoeconomic performance of an Integrated Plasma Gasification Combined Cycle power plant (IPGCC) fueled with MSW. The effects of the plasma and reactor temperatures on the IPGCC efficiency were studied. The plant reached the best thermodynamic performance (32.49% efficiency) at a low reactor temperature (2000 degrees C) and at high plasma temperature (5000 degrees C) since torch power consumption decreased. At these conditions, the IPGCC power plant, processing 900 t/day, was able to generate similar to 56 MWe. In the economic assessment, several financing scenarios were considered for the calculations of the levelized cost of energy (LCOE), which is used as an economic indicator. When the investment structure included 30% green bonds and 70% bank loans, the best LCOE (9.13 cent US$/kWh) was obtained. Furthermore, if the generation project received a reliability charge of 1.70 cent US$/kWh, the LCOE would decrease to 7.56 cent US$/kWh, which could be competitive in the Colombian electricity market, whose 2020 average electricity price was 7.11 cent US$/kWh.