Energy and carbon emission savings potential of chemical plant by implementing cogeneration technologies

In this paper, feasibility analysis to implement different cogeneration systems using agricultural waste (rice husk) along with natural gas as an alternative source of energy for energy saving and cost optimization in a chemical plant is carried out. The authors believe that such feasibility studies by employing rice husk and natural gas in a cycle to improve the energy efficiency and carbon emission savings of chemical plant are limited and therefore this research is timely not only because of the current interest in high-performance cogeneration options but also from the scientific research point of view. The cogeneration technologies implemented are a gas turbine, steam turbine and combined cycle and are evaluated from the energetic and economic point of view to propose a best suitable technology. These technologies are evaluated on the basis of energy utilization factor, simple pay-back period and Annualized life cycle cost (ALCC). The results show that all studied cogeneration options running on thermal match mode have fully satisfied the thermal demand of a chemical plant and in most cases, 70% electric demand, where combined cycle has the highest energy utilization factor and the least Annualized life cycle cost with the lowest payback period.