Comparative Study of Biomass Gasification for Electricity and Methanol Production

Muhammad Aldiansyah Al Rizqi, Khamdan Cahyari, Muflih Arisa Adnan

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The Indonesian government has established several programs and policies to support the development of new and renewable energy as part of the energy transition and carbon emission reduction efforts with a national energy mix target of 23% in 2025 and 31% in 2050. Based on data released by the Central Statistics Agency of Indonesia in 2023, East Java has a wealth of sugar cane, rice, and corn kernels of 1,129,000 tons, 9,591,420 tons, and 5,991,810 tons, respectively. Therefore, biomass wastes are attractive as a gasification feedstock. Electricity and methanol are commodities that can support the government. This study evaluated and compared both the technical performance and economic feasibility between various combinations of those biomasses waste feed scenarios from bagasse, rice husk, and corncob to produce various combinations of product scenarios using Aspen Plus V14 simulation which constitutes the novelty of this research.  The evaluation process was conducted using the Aspen Plus V14. The operating conditions of the gasification process were determined through a sensitivity analysis of key process variables, namely temperature, pressure, and steam-to-biomass ratio, to identify their effects on the optimal composition of the produced syngas. The utilization of syngas for electricity and methanol production was also simulated using Aspen Plus V14, where the operating conditions and resulting products were evaluated based on the required energy input and the corresponding carbon emissions. The economic feasibility of the process was assessed using key financial indicators, including payback periods, Return on Investment (ROI), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), and Net Present Value (NPV). The evaluation results indicate that single feed scenario from corncob is technically and economically feasible to produce methanol and electricity under separate production scenarios. Bagasse is feasible for electricity generation, while the other biomass scenarios did not meet the evaluation criteria.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.20961/equilibrium.v9i2.106863

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