THERMOECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF COGENERATIONWITH PALM BIOMASSH

The culture of palm represents more than one third of global vegetable oilproduction. Process of palm demands large amounts of eletricity and steam, howeverproduces biomass with high energy potencial. Because of this features, cogenaration can beaplied in order to decrease operational costs. The goal of this study was evalueted the steamand eletricity production costs produces by cogenaration of palm residues utilizing SPECOmethology. The cogeration plant was dimensioned to suply energetic demand of a mill wichprocess 50 tons of palm bunches. The costs obtained for steam and eletricity was,respectivelly, 12,18 R$/ton e 124,12 R$/MWh. When a comparison is done betweenproduction cost and purchase price of eletricity, results shows that cogeneration couldgenerate an economy of R$ 4.795.083,92 per year for the palm mill.KEYWORDS: Exergy; Exergoeconomic; Thermoeconomic; Palm; Cogeneration