Product-energy cascade analysis (PENCA) for integrated product and energy system optimization

Abstract

This paper presents an optimisation method called the Product-Energy Nexus Cascade Analysis (PENCA), developed based on the principal of Pinch Analysis. Product and energy are both valuable resources that are majorly used in industrial processes. Both product and energy are interdependent where increasing product demand will increase the energy demand and vice versa. In this paper, PENCA is introduced to simultaneously optimise both product and energy system that is interdependent. The methodology applies Cascade Analysis to individually optimise both system. As both systems are interdependent, altering one of the system will result in a change to the other system. An iterative method is then introduced to converge the analysis to obtain the optimal result for both systems. A case study is conducted to prove PENCA methodology, in which biogas is used as cooking gas and used to generate electricity and for a residential area of 500 households. A typical household with a daily electricity consumption of 9 kWh and cooking gas 31.06 kWh is estimated for this study. The power plant will also produce electricity to operate the palm oil mill. The production of biogas requires electricity as well due to the presence of electrical machineries in anaerobic digestion and purification process such as pump and compressor. An overall of 4 iterations were conducted and the final capacity of the anaerobic digester is revealed as 474.180 m3 and the biogas power plant capacity is 1522.769 kWh, the biogas storage capacity is extracted and revealed as 1065.003 m3, while the energy storage capacity is 750.00 kWh.