Performance Testing and Case Studies of Rural Household Biogas Micro-CHP Systems

Abstract

Against the backdrop of clean rural heating and dual carbon targets, this paper investigates and develops a household combined heat and power (CHP) unit. The performance of the unit under natural gas operating conditions was tested and evaluated in the laboratory. The test results show that at rated operating conditions the unit has an electrical efficiency of 29% and an overall efficiency of 96%. The micro-CHP was then tested in a civil building in a demonstration site in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, for trial operation under biogas working conditions. The test results show that when the unit in biogas working condition is heating the room, the unit has a rated working condition power generation of 3.2 KW and still has an average electrical efficiency of about 26.8% and a thermal efficiency of 65.6%, which remains at a high level. And the room temperature data shows that the heat supply meets the heating demand. Finally, this paper compares the performance with micro-CHP units available in the European and American markets. The results show that the performance of this unit is superior to many micro-CHP units available overseas. This paper demonstrates through test results that rural micro-CHP system can meet the daily energy needs of farmers, improve energy use efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.