Renewable Energy Options for a Utility System

In this paper, renewable energies have been re-addressed with respect to the potentials and feasibility of being incorporated in process industries. Within a process, utility system is considered to be the most appropriate place for using sustainable energies. For integrating the renewable energies, the pinch analysis is applied as the main tool to provide opportunity for energy conservation. The results demonstrated that the power generation by the wind is the most cost effective and environmentally friendly option for energy conservation in comparison to the other sustainable resources. However the tidal energy stands the least due to the long payback period. Also, a computer program has been developed, using MATLAB 7.3, to screen out different scenarios and perform economic study. The outcome data showed that, there are several different opportunities for the integration of alternative energies. Finally, this method has been applied to a case study and various retrofit projects have been identified, each of which has certain amount of CO(2) reduction and estimated values for the required investment, saving potential and payback period.