Gasification technology - prospects for large-scale, high-efficiency cogeneration in the Australian sugar industry

The conversion of bagasse and, potentially, trash into a gas that can be burnt in a gas/steam turbine combined cycle offers the potential for significantly raising power export by the sugar industry. This paper reports on the preliminary findings of a study to assess some of the factory energy related implications of adopting gasification technology in raw sugar factories. A computer simulation has been developed to examine these issues. Factory issues including process steam efficiency, bagasse storage .capacity and the use of trash as an alternative off~season fuel are discussed in the light of results obtained from the simulation. The model indicates that the full efficiency gains from adopting this technology will only be realized with the utilisation of significant amounts of the available trash on the cane plant or by importing the equivalent fuel energy in some other form. With the utilisation of trash, the indicated annual efficiency of power generation using Biomass Integrated Gasification/Combined Cycle (BIG/CC) technology represents an almost four-fold increase relative to the best technology currently in use in the industry. The indicated total export power capability via the gasification of bagasse derived from both stalk and 66% of the available trash is over 2600 MWe and 3000 MWe during the crushing and maintenance seasons, respectively, for the Australian sugar industry.