An integrated gasification plant for electric power generation from wet biomass: toward a sustainable production in the olive oil industry

Abstract This research work proposes an integrated gasification plant for simultaneous generation of renewable electricity and drying olive pomace, a thick sludge with moisture content close to 60–70% (wet basis), which constitutes by far the most abundant by-product in Spanish oil industry. Due its massive rate production increasing associated transportation costs, pomace management currently represents substantial expense mills. The plant, can be installed directly at mills, consists pelletizer, downdraft gasifier under autothermal operation fueled dried pellets, producer gas cooling cleaning unit microturbine as power unit. wet continuously produced mills is eventually co-current flow rotary drum dryer hot exhaust gases leaving temperatures 300 °C, allowing self-sufficient plant. was modeled using Aspen Plus® process simulator. developed model validated against experimental simulation results relevant works. Under optimum operating conditions, electrical efficiency proposed 18.8%, while additional stage allows achieving overall 51.0%. Electricity consumption pelletizer ancillary equipment 10–20% net electric from microturbine. However, since inexpensive that massively on-site, performance parameters are remarkably satisfactory.