Health external costs associated to the integration of solid oxide fuel cell in a sugar-ethanol factory

The health external costs of the electricity generation alternatives associated to a sugar ethanol factory are investigated. Two scenarios of power generation facilities have been analyzed in this study: the first scenario (existing) combines a bagasse cogeneration unit with a diesel combustion engines and the second scenario (future) the diesel engines are substituted by a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) fed with ethanol and integrated into the sugar factory. The health impacts referred as Years of Life Loss (YOLL) for the two proposed scenarios are estimated applying the Uniform World Model (UWM). Monetary values of damage costs related to human health per kW h of generated electricity are determined, as well as its influence on the total production cost. Therefore, the results of the external costs evaluation, shows that the use of a SOFC technology involves a reduction of health impacts in 25.76 YOLL year(-1) (12%) and external costs of 52,175 US$ year(-1) (12%), as well as a reduction of the electricity cost of 0.05 US$ cent per kW h in comparison with the existing scenario (bagasse cogeneration and diesel combustion engines). The internalization of this external cost would increase the production cost and the electricity price by more than 30% and 10%, respectively. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.