Fluidized Bed Gasification Power Plant for Cotton Gins

The continued regulation of greenhouse gases (GHG) to reduce carbon emissions from coal fired power plants will likely reduce the availability of electricity and cause an increase in costs in the future. Agriculture facilities, such as cotton gins, in rural areas will be faced with challenges with regards for energy. A byproduct at a gin is cotton gin trash (CGT), a waste biomass with an energy content of 7000 Btu/lb. The energy in the CGT can be converted to useful energy, such as electricity and heat, through the process of fluidized bed gasification (FBG). FBG is a thermo-chemical process that converts a biomass to a combustible synthesis gas (syngas) that can be utilized in an engine to fuel a generator. Research has been conducted on a pilot scale gasification system to develop the engineering design parameters to scale the system up to electric outputs in the lower megawatt (MW) range. However, additional research is needed to close the gap between pilot and large scale FBG systems. The next step in the current research is to design and evaluate a sustainable 250 kW FBG system fueled by CGT located at a gin.