Techno-economic analysis of a cooling, heating, and electricity trigeneration system based on downdraft fixed bed wood and tire gasification: Case study of a campus office building

A cooling, heating, and electricity trigeneration system for an office building based on real energy consumption requirements has been designed in this study. Six options have been compared using three various wood-tire mixture ratios (100% wood; 50% wood and 50% tire; and 100% tire) and two gasifier numbers (flexible gasifier numbers of 3 & ndash;10; fixed gasifier numbers of 3-4) in different seasons. Aspen Plus and MATLAB models are used to simulate the process, and a discounted cash flow rate of return analysis method is used to evaluate the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) when the heating and cooling are analyzed as byproducts. Results show that a 100% wood gasification model with four gasifiers used in all seasons has the highest average energy efficiency of 37% to 66%, while the 100% tire gasification model has the lowest LCOE of $0.15/kWh. Sensitive analysis shows the impacts of heating and cooling prices on LCOE.