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Title: Thermal-economic analysis of cogenerated energy recovery by mass-burning modular refuse incinerators. IIT Energy Management Report TR-82-2

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6600656

The present work concerns the thermodynamic and economic analysis of the feasibility of installing and operating modular water-wall incinerators to burn municipal refuse for the purpose of cogeneration of steam and electricity. A general method of determining the heat balance for the class of systems of interest has been developed. A proposed facility to deliver steam to two industries in the City of Chicago has been chosen as a case study to illustrate the approach. A main objective of the analysis is to determine the economically optimum number of modular units (if any) based on the criterion of selecting the largest possible investment which achieves at least a minimum acceptable rate of return relative to all lesser investments. Both taxable and tax-exempt ownership options have been considered. In addition to equity financing, the effects of alternate financing schemes including debt and leveraged-lease financing have also been considered. The taxable cases with debt financing include both conventional and Industrial Development Bond, IDB, debt financing. The effect of displacing purchases as compared with sales to the electric utility has also been studied. The analysis includes appropriate treatment of the regulatory and tax provisions of the National Energy Acts and of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. It was found for the case study that viability and the economic choice of number of modular units is sensitive to the indirect cost rate and to the value of steam, but not very sensitive to the value of refuse disposal and electricity, or to the type of ownership and financing. For the present case, a 750 tons per day (680 tonnes per day) installation was found to be viable and optimum and would produce 131,000 lbm/h (59,420 kg/h) of psig (4408 kPa) steam and 3.76 MW(e) of electricity under rated conditions.

Research Organization:
Illinois Inst. of Tech., Chicago (USA). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
DOE Contract Number:
FG02-80CS40337
OSTI ID:
6600656
Report Number(s):
DOE/CS/40337-9; ON: DE83005081
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Portions of document are illegible
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English