A comparative study on targeting CO2 emissions reduction from small-scale utility system

Abstract

This study targets CO2 emission reduction from a particular palm oil refinery scenario presented below where medium-pressure (MP) steam and low-pressure (LP) steam are supplied for process heating. Two different utilities configurations, i.e., steam boiler alone and steam boiler followed by steam turbine are evaluated and compared in terms of their CO2 emission reduction target. Steam boiler alone achieved 20.9% CO2 emission reduction compared to steam boiler followed by steam turbine at the same retrofit design with a minimum temperature driving force, ΔTmin of 17 °C. Such emission reduction is still considered attractive on global basis if the required electricity comes from the renewable energy resources.