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In 2015, uncontrolled burning of tropical peatland in Indonesia led to a noxious haze that plagued the region. This paper aims to prevent the deadly haze from its source by harvesting the peat and utilizing it in a controlled manner. A conceptual design of a peat gasification process to produce electricity and methanol is proposed. Five selection criteria, namely, methanol yield, reduction in CO2 emissions, usable energy, capital cost and payback period are used to compare four design alternatives for a peat gasification process. Two types of gasifiers (i.e., updraft fixed-bed and dual fluidized-bed) and two types of methanol synthesis reactors (i.e., gas-phase and liquid-phase) are paired to create four design alternatives that are modeled in Aspen Plus. The chosen design is then refined with detailed modeling of the power generation section and energy integration. The final design consumes 1,000 tonne peat/day, produces 214 tonne methanol/day, and generates 56 MW of electricity. Furthermore, GHG emissions are reduced by 22.4%. © IEOM Society International.
