Impact of cofiring biomass with coal in power plants - A techno-economic assessment

Biomass cofiring in existing coal-fired boilers has emerged as a prospective option for voluntary reduction in CO2 emissions to mitigate the global warming problem. However, the associated cost increase plays a crucial role for this retrofitting. A techno-economic model for the estimation of economics of cofiring is presented in this paper using the pilot plant test results for biomass cofiring and general heat and mass balance. A sensitivity analysis is carried out with this developed model to investigate the effects of different operating and logical parameters on the economics of biomass coal cofiring process. Significant results of this sensitivity analysis are also presented in this paper. The presented results may be useful for a plant owner to decide regarding the economic feasibility of retrofitting for biomass cofiring. On the other hand, it will also help to estimate the required incentives for this purpose. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.