Exergy Analysis of Boiler Process Powered by Biogas Fuel in Ethanol Production Plant: a Preliminary Analysis

This paper investigates a fluidized bed boiler used in an ethanol production plant. The boiler uses biogas fuel produced by the waste system of the distillation unit within this ethanol plant. Using Engineering Equation Solver (EES), a mathematical model is developed by employing the exergy analysis. Before the study was undertaken, initial operating data of the components in the plant was collected. The results show that the boiler system has an overall efficiency of 68.238 %. The exergy efficiency in each component was also calculated. The evaporator and heat exchanger have the lowest efficiency at 45.97% and 28.96%, respectively. The efficiencies of the other components are 61.41% for the pump water pit, 54.42% for the soft water tank and 66.39% for the de-aerator.