T. Oyegoke; E. Obadiah; Y. S. Sardauna MOHAMMED; O. Alao BAMIGBALA; O. A. Oluwarotimi OWOLABI; T. Tongshuwar GEOFFREY; A. Oyegoke; A. Onadeji
Abstract
Increasing energy demand and fossil fuel dependency have increased interest in bioethanol production in recent years. The use of conventional saccharine and starchy materials for ethanol production is prohibitive as it is a threat to food security. As such, rice husk poses to be of great value, providing ...
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Increasing energy demand and fossil fuel dependency have increased interest in bioethanol production in recent years. The use of conventional saccharine and starchy materials for ethanol production is prohibitive as it is a threat to food security. As such, rice husk poses to be of great value, providing a means to utilize waste. This study assessed the economic viability of bioethanol production from rice husk waste, which entails capital and manufacturing cost estimation, and profitability of this process. Further cost optimization studies were carried to determine the material cost, government subsidy, and tax potential to maximize the overall financial benefit (i.e., ROI and net profit) of the bioethanol production. Findings from this study indicated that transforming rice husk into bioethanol would not be economically feasible due to negative net profit (i.e., a loss on investment) obtained from its profitability analysis. Further studies indicated that the project was susceptible to the raw material cost, subsidy, and tax rate. Result obtained from the optimization studies indicates that if the rice husk sales as low as 1.38 US$/kg, and Government introduced 25% subsidy and tax-free policy on bioethanol production, the project would yield a net worth of US$ 5 million per annum, payback period of 5.5 years, and a return on investment of 16.1%. Therefore, this study recommends introducing a subsidy and tax-waiver policy for biofuels production to encourage investors and promote cleaner fuels in emerging nations.
A. Beiranvand; M.A. Ehyaei; A. Ahmadi; Jose Luz Silvaria
Abstract
The high potential of solar energy in Iran, as well as the problem of air pollution, makes it increasingly inevitable that solar energy is used. In this study, the solar-powered Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) has been investigated. The solar-type collector is a flat plate collector. The energy, exergy, ...
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The high potential of solar energy in Iran, as well as the problem of air pollution, makes it increasingly inevitable that solar energy is used. In this study, the solar-powered Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) has been investigated. The solar-type collector is a flat plate collector. The energy, exergy, and economic analyses of the hybrid system with the MOPSO algorithm have been carried out for Tehran., the capital of Iran. The working fluid of the solar collector has assumed water and the working fluid of the ORC cycle is R123. The MATLAB software is used for simulation and to compute the R123 fluid properties, the Refprop software is used. The exergy investigation shows that the most exergy destruction is related to the evaporator. Two objective functions consist of exergy efficiency and the price of electricity are considered. The decision variables for this optimization are considered as; the number of solar collector panels, the pump, and turbine isentropic efficiencies, and the pressure of condenser and evaporator. The Pareto diagram shows that the exergy efficiency of the system can vary as 7.5 % to 10.5 %, as well as the price of produced electricity can vary from 0.2 to 0.26 to $/kWh.