Economy of a utility boiler power plant fueled with vegetable oil, biodiesel, petrodiesel and their prevalent blends

• The expenditure of a boiler is investigated with petrodiesel potential alternatives.
• Biodiesel and vegetable oil lead to 9151 and 2476 US$ extra costs in boiler.
• The use of B5 and B20 leads to an annual cost savings of 1155 and 752 US$.
• NOX contribution to external costs for pure biodiesel is 20%.

The economy of a boiler (operating costs) which was fueled with petrodiesel and its prevalent alternatives (soybean oil (SBO), soybean oil methyl ester (SOME), and two blends 5% (B5) and 20% (B20) by volume of SOME in petrodiesel) is studied by a cost-based function over the years 2000 to 2015. The price of fuels, regulated (CO, CO2, NOX, and SO2), non-regulated emissions (PM) and their contribution to the boiler total expenditure are studied at the optimum equivalence ratios of the combustion. Among all kinds of fuels, B5 and B20 can make good economical substitutes for petrodiesel in the selected boiler since the use of these fuels in the boiler leads to annual cost savings of about 1155 and 752 US$ even when these fuels are considered non-renewable, i.e., the price of CO2 is considered in boiler external costs. The operation of the boiler with SOME is not economical even when it is considered renewable. The use of SBO fuel leads to annual saving of 2712 US$ in the boiler when it is considered renewable and when it is not considered renewable the operation of the boiler is not economical.