A simulation of energy generation from Jatropha solid residues in a power plant in Jazan city, KSA

A simulation was needed to simulate generating energy from Jatropha plants' solid wastes in combined cycle power plants. In this study, a simulation was built to simulate energy generation from gasified Jatropha solid wastes. Solid wastes from Jatropha plants' were generated from biodiesel production to produce 1.53 kg/s biodiesel. An assumption was made these solid wastes were gasified to generate energy. Energy production was simulated using DWSIM software. Solid wastes were classified into three categories; cake, shell, and husk. The amount of cake was calculated to be 1.62 kg/s, the shell calculated to be 3.6 kg/s, and the husk was calculated to be 2.16 kg/s. Therefore, the producer gas for each Jatropha solid waste was estimated according to the literature to be 3.65 m³/s for the cake, 4.86 m³/s for husk, and 8.1 m³/s for the shell. The simulation of generating energy from the syngas was validated using experimental data from the literature. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to find the optimum conditions. The results showed that the energy produced from Jatropha waste was higher than that produced from biodiesel. From the simulation, the net energy generated in the gas turbine section was 21.34 MW and from HRSG 12.472 MW. The water flow rate in the compression section of syngas was found to be 10.18 kg/s, which was converted to steam and added more power to the power plant.