THE POWER GENERATION WITH VEGETABLE OILS: A CASE STUDY

The utilization of vegetable oils, and in particular the palm oil, as fuel in the power generation has had a remarkable development in the last few years. Generally the vegetable oil can be used with a particular marine-derived diesel ICE, with low rpm and an electric conversion efficiency of about 40%. The efficiency is strictly connected to the size of the plant. Moreover, the considerable amount of the required vegetable oil to feed the system forces to import the fuel. This is one of the most critical elements as the palm oil is subject to continuous and wide variations in prices. Due to this variation it is difficult to obtain a stable and convenient fuel supply over a long period of time. The present work is aimed at evaluating and estimating the economic, technical and environmental feasibility of a 20 MW plant for the stationary power generation fed with palm oil, enlightening the system solution (technical constructive aspects) and the economic appraisal, on the basis of variations in oil prices. Finally, the economic sensibility analysis based on the fuel cost and the European mechanisms of biomass incentives. Copyright © 2011 by ASME