Biomass-based Thermal Power Generation

Ghana, like most Sub-Saharan African countries, is plagued with a persistent trend of inadequate power supply. Such a situation has a ripple effect on all sectors of the economy. Currently, efforts are being made at the national level via the Ministry of Energy and Ghana Energy Commission to arrest the current situation, through policies and agreements with multinational investors. Modular biomass-based generation of electricity presents a promising avenue to harness locally available fuel resources in order to increase the national installed capacity. In this study, the technical and economic viability of a 6MWe cogeneration plant to be sited at KNUST campus was assessed as a model of community based electricity generation system. The study lead to the proposal of a 6MWe biomass-based cogeneration plant, with a capital cost of 11.21 US$ million and a levelised generation cost of US$ 0.08079/kWh. It has a second law efficiency of 50.6% and exergy destruction of 0.45 kW per KW of useful power generated. The exergetic measures of performance proved to be very informative as they have direct correlation with the extent of irreversibilities in the system and the operating costs.