Keywords
Power plants
Exergy
co-firing process
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Greenhouse Gases (GHG).
How to Cite
Abstract
This paper presents a technical (base on exergy) and environmental analysis concerning an existing 50 MWe steam power plant located in the south of Santa Catarina state - Brazil, designed to operate with pulverized coal and modified to operate in co-firing process coal -biomass. In addition to the power plant, the study considered an extended boundary that involves the processes related to the obtaining, transport and handling both coal and biomass. The exergy analysis was focused in the second law of thermodynamics, while the environmental analysis followed the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology took into account as functional unit 1 MWh and the global warming impact category, following the IPCC GWP index over 100 years. For both cases (only coal and co-firing), the exergetic analysis indicated that the power plant is responsible for over 95% of the exergy consumption. Results indicated that for the case of operating only with coal, are emitted 1230 kg of CO2-eq per MWh, whereas for operation in co-firing, with a share of 10% of biomass on energy basis, the value of the issue it is 1103 kg CO2-eq per MWh.
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