Digitala Vetenskapliga Arkivet

Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Assessment of heat, electricity, and biochar polygeneration potential in an existing biomass-fired moving grate boiler used for district heating
Linnaeus University, Faculty of Technology, Department of Built Environment and Energy Technology. (Energy Technology)ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8964-116X
Linnaeus University, Faculty of Technology, Department of Built Environment and Energy Technology.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6323-1277
Umeå University, Sweden.
2027 (English)In: Biomass and Bioenergy, ISSN 0961-9534, E-ISSN 1873-2909, Vol. 217, no B, article id 109918Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Sustainable development
SDG 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts by regulating emissions and promoting developments in renewable energy
Abstract [en]

This study evaluates the techno-economic and environmental potential of retrofitting a 3 MWth biomass-fired moving-grate boiler in Sweden, for polygeneration of district heat, electricity, and biochar through direct biochar integration. The retrofit suppresses late-stage char oxidation to recover solid carbon as biochar, while volatile gases are fully combusted for heat generation. A scenario-based assessment was conducted using full-year operational data, combining mass and energy balance modeling, Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) simulation, levelized cost of biochar (LCOB) assessment, and sensitivity analysis. Results show that approximately 54% of fuel energy is delivered as heat and about 45% is retained in biochar, with flue gas condensation contributing substantially to heat recovery. Under demand-driven scenarios (S1–S3), annual heat supply remains constant at about 13.6 GWh, while biochar production reaches 1.2–1.4 kt (9.9–11.1 GWh). ORC integration produces up to 1.59 GWh of electricity annually, depending on dispatch strategy. The maximum-throughput case (S4) increases biochar and electricity output but generates surplus heat. The LCOB without considering revenue from carbon sequestration is estimated at 39 €/MWh (320 €/t) under demand-constrained operation and is most sensitive to biomass price and, when ORC is applied, electricity price. Biochar production enables carbon sequestration of 2.4–2.7 kt CO2/y in S1–S3 and 10.2 kt CO2/y in S4. The study demonstrates that integrated biochar coproduction can convert existing biomass district-heating boilers into carbon-negative polygeneration systems while maintaining reliable heat supply.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2027. Vol. 217, no B, article id 109918
Keywords [en]
Polygeneration, Biochar, Organic Rankine cycle, Biomass, Moving-grate boiler, District heating, Carbon sequestration
National Category
Energy Engineering Energy Systems Chemical Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-149015DOI: 10.1016/j.biombioe.2026.109918ISI: 001848359400001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105046858769OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-149015DiVA, id: diva2:2091109
Available from: 2026-08-10 Created: 2026-08-10 Last updated: 2026-08-24Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(7788 kB)22 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 7788 kBChecksum SHA-512
7551c7557ae917d3d495b715236aa4ea93a75837741614a7fda00eb5b049dadef7d98f5ea6958f5332edefdfb2a0bc7679d5a59837670b011d634c9c96c73bb9
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Lin, LetengJohansson, Wanja
By organisation
Department of Built Environment and Energy Technology
In the same journal
Biomass and Bioenergy
Energy EngineeringEnergy SystemsChemical Engineering

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 158 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf