Published April 1987
This report concerns the technology and economics for on-site cogeneration of electricity and process steam by chemical plants and petroleum refineries. It discusses the legislation and governmental incentives for cogeneration in the United States, West Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Also discussed are the various thermodynamic cycles for cogeneration.
To illustrate the economics of cogeneration, we selected as a base the furnishing of electricity and process steam to a U.S. Gulf Coast plant producing 800 million lb (383 kt)/yr caustic soda and 700 million lb (317.5 kt)/yr chlorine by the membrane process. In addition, we included a design case for producing the same amount of electricity as in the base case but also surplus steam for export, and a design case for producing both surplus electricity and surplus process steam for export. For each .of these demands, we evaluated three cogeneration processes:
- Natural gas-fired combined cycle process
- Integrated coal gasification combined cycle process
- Petroleum coke-fired atmospheric fluid bed boiler process
For each capacity combination and each cogeneration process, we developed the investment and operating costs. These costs are compared with the costs of raising steam in stand-alone packaged boiler(s) and purchasing power from a public utility at market price. We then calculated the internal rate of return on investment for each study case.
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