Published Date
Renewable Energy
May 2016, Vol.90:307–318, doi:10.1016/j.renene.2016.01.030
Author
Abstract
Empty fruit bunches (EFB) of oil-palm are one of the most recent renewable energy resources. The objective of this study is to find the most economically-feasible pathway among three energy conversions from 400 t/d wet EFB, which are bioethanol and jet fuel by bioconversion, combined heat and power via gasification, and hydrocarbons through fast pyrolysis and biooil upgrading. A hierarchical four-level economic potential approach (4-level EP) was employed to perform the preliminary techno-economic analysis (TEA) for the three pathways. The 4-level EP includes the input/output structure, the flowsheet structure, the heat integration (HI), and the economic feasibility. The economic potential of the three plants was compared at each level, and the most promising process among them was identified at Level 4, where economic criteria including return on investment (ROI), payback period (PBP), and internal rate of return (IRR) were evaluated. It was found that the biooil hydrocarbon plant is most economical due to the highest economic potential, ROI, and IRR. The heat consumption was reduced considerably by HI in the bioethanol and jet fuel plant. The sensitivity analysis informed that the plant size, the product yield, and the total capital investment highly influenced ROI and PBP in all three processes.
Keywords
Empty fruit bunches (EFB)
Fast-pyrolysis
Gasification
Bioethanol
Economic potential
Techno-economic analysis (TEA)
For further details log on website :
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148116300301
Renewable Energy
May 2016, Vol.90:307–318, doi:10.1016/j.renene.2016.01.030
Author
Received 1 July 2015. Revised 1 December 2015. Accepted 6 January 2016. Available online 13 January 2016.
Highlights
- •Evaluation of techno-economic feasibility by 4-level economic potential approach.
- •Comparison of three energy conversion pathways from 400 t/d wet EFB.
- •The three pathways include fast pyrolysis, gasification and bioethanol production.
- •The fast pyrolysis and biooil upgrading plant shows the highest economic viability.
Empty fruit bunches (EFB) of oil-palm are one of the most recent renewable energy resources. The objective of this study is to find the most economically-feasible pathway among three energy conversions from 400 t/d wet EFB, which are bioethanol and jet fuel by bioconversion, combined heat and power via gasification, and hydrocarbons through fast pyrolysis and biooil upgrading. A hierarchical four-level economic potential approach (4-level EP) was employed to perform the preliminary techno-economic analysis (TEA) for the three pathways. The 4-level EP includes the input/output structure, the flowsheet structure, the heat integration (HI), and the economic feasibility. The economic potential of the three plants was compared at each level, and the most promising process among them was identified at Level 4, where economic criteria including return on investment (ROI), payback period (PBP), and internal rate of return (IRR) were evaluated. It was found that the biooil hydrocarbon plant is most economical due to the highest economic potential, ROI, and IRR. The heat consumption was reduced considerably by HI in the bioethanol and jet fuel plant. The sensitivity analysis informed that the plant size, the product yield, and the total capital investment highly influenced ROI and PBP in all three processes.
Keywords
Nomenclature
Abbreviations
- 4-level EP
- Four-level hierarchical economic potential
- BEJF
- bioethanol and jet fuel
- BOE
- barrel of oil equivalent
- CAPEX
- capital expenditure
- CEPCI
- chemical engineering plant cost index
- EFB
- empty fruit bunches
- EP
- economic potential
- FFB
- fresh fruit bunches
- FPBU
- fast pyrolysis and biooil upgrading
- GCHP
- gasification for combined heat and power
- HHV
- higher heating value
- HI
- heat integration
- IRR
- internal rate of return, %
- LCOE
- levelized cost of electricity, $/kWhe
- LHV
- lower heating value
- NPV
- net present value, $
- NRTL
- non-random two-liquid
- OPEX
- operational expenditure
- PBP
- payback period, yr
- PR
- Peng-Robinson
- PFD
- process flow diagram
- PoS
- plot of sensitivity
- REC
- renewable energy certificate
- ROI
- return on investment, %
- SRK
- Soave-Redlich-Kwong
- TEA
- techno-economic analysis
Symbols
- A
- capacity, kt/yr
- a
- installed cost factor
- b
- indirect cost factor
- c
- project contingency factor
- cr
- cost of the raw material, $/kg
- CAI
- annualized total installed cost, $/yr
- Ccat
- annualized catalyst cost, $/yr
- Cdep
- depreciation cost, $/yr
- CDI
- total direct and indirect costs, $
- CE
- purchased equipment costs, $
- CF
- fixed capital investment, $
- Cfix
- fixed costs, $/yr
- CHE
- extra heat exchanger capital cost, $
- CI
- total installed cost, $
- CID
- indirect cost, $
- CP
- project contingency, $
- CRM
- raw material cost, $/yr
- CT
- total capital investment, $
- CTP
- total production cost, $/yr
- CTU
- total utility cost, $/yr
- CTU,HI
- total utility cost after heat integration, $/yr
- CTUS
- total utility saved by heat integration, $/yr
- CW
- working capital, $
- d
- working capital factor
- E
- economic potential, $/yr
- Fp
- mass flow rate of product, kg/yr
- f
- amount of byproduct or raw material per 1 kg of product, kg/kg
- i
- interest rate, %
- I
- cost index
- Lcat
- catalyst life time, yr
- Ld
- depreciation life, yr
- Lp
- plant life, yr
- N
- number of equipment
- pp
- market price of product, $/kg
- pbp
- market price of byproduct, $/kg
- PASR
- annual sales revenue, $/yr
- Pcash
- cash flow, $/yr
- pcat
- market price of catalyst, $/kg
- PG
- gross profit, $/yr
- PN
- net profit, $/yr
- vspace
- weight hourly space velocity, h−1
- β
- rate of corporation income tax
- γ
- capacity exponent
- ηLHV
- energy conversion efficiency based on lower heating value,%
- τ
- annualizing factor, yr
- ∗ Corresponding author.
Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
For further details log on website :
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148116300301
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