SUMMARY
Thermal power plants expel pollutants consisting of hazardous gases that result in degradation of environment and ecosystem, gasification technologies offer potential for clean and efficient energy. To address sustainable power production using coal-based thermal power plants, analysis for integration of fluidized bed gasifier with thermal power plants with varying gasifier pressure, air-fuel ratio, steam-fuel ratio and flue gas-fuel ratio has been carried out. Optimum performance at gasifier pressure of 2 bar and the steam-fuel ratio of 0.25 was observed with relative air-fuel of 0.075. With increasing flue gas-fuel ratio from 0.25 to 1.00, although the mole fractions of components of syngas don’t differ much, the heating value and cold-gas efficiency of syngas produced decreases for each fuel. Considering the emissions, simulated results present co-gasification as better option over conventional systems. A reduction of two-third in kg of CO2 released per kg of fuel was observed with almost three-fourth decrement in kg of CO2 per kWh of power produced. Also, zero SOx and NOx emissions were observed compared to coal based thermal power plants. Simulation of the gasification cycle with varying parameters is carried out using MATLAB. Results exhibit optimum performance of gasification system at gasifier pressure of 2 bar, air-fuel ratio of 0.1, steam-fuel ratio of 0.25 and flue gas-fuel ratio of 1.00. The proposed cycle presents itself suitable for further research and its application to coal based thermal power plants, providing potential towards supplementary power generation and cleaner exhaust.