Small scale biomass CHP plant: An assessment for an animal feed industry

This paper describes a technical, economic and exergoeconomic assessment to verify the feasibility of a combined heat and power (CHP) plant implementation in an animal feed industry to attend its electric power demands. A small-scale Rankine cycle was defined for the CHP plant. Plant operation was simulated at steady state condition, taking into account heat and electric power demands under two considerations: electric power selling to the grid and burning wood chips or charcoal as fuel. In order to get the feasibility assessment, a cash flow was elaborated. The thermoeconomic structural theory was applied for the exergoeconomic assessment. The results show that the feasibility of the CHP plant implementation was achieved by using charcoal as fuel. The consideration of electric power selling to the grid was shown to be the most interesting. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.