Techno-Economic Analysis for Solar Thermal Integration Point in an Industrial Boiler Network: Case Study from Dairy Sector
Abstract
This paper presents techno-economic analysis of a parabolic trough collector (PTC) for various integration points in a boiler network. The complete system is simulated with solar collectors utilized in 3 different integration schemes: a) feed water heating, b) direct steam generation, and c) Process integration. The effect of integration point on the solar fraction, levelized cost of heating (LCOH), and carbon mitigation potential is presented for a real case dairy unit in Dubai. The simulations are performed using TRNSYS and MATLAB. Furthermore, A sensitivity analysis is carried to analyze the effect of variation in storage type, load profile, and collector cost on the system economics. Results show that minimum solar fraction is achieved with feed water integration. A relatively higher solar fraction can be achieved in steam integration, at expense of higher LCOH. Furthermore, load profile has a significant variation on the system economics. The excess energy from the solar field has the potenti