THERMOECONOMIC FEASIBILITY STUDY OF THE COGENERATION SYSTEM FOR AN ASPHALT PLANT
This work presents the elements that constitute a cogeneration system for an industrial asphalt plant, analyzing the productive structure of the plant and energy needs, related to the demands of heat, electricity and mechanical energy, which resulted in the technological option of Topping type, which the electricity generation precedes the use of useful heat, based on that, the following cases has been compared: a) combustion engine + recovery boiler with steam production, b) internal combustion engine + thermal oil heat exchanger, c) 8 microturbines + thermal oil heat exchanger and d) 3 gas microturbine, with supplemental firing and thermal oil exchanger for heating the CAP tank, replacing the gas thermal oil heater. In highlight the microturbine gas option, detailed in general in the such evaluation as: bibliometric, financial, economic, feasibility, social, environmental and legislation assessments and analyzes, known the rules and requirements of the plant's energy balance and the cost of this equipment, it is essential to the viability result of this case study. The guidelines presented here are based on the production of electric energy of 300 kW, higher than the plant's demand, which is 210.2 kW, generating a surplus.