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Title: Energy Self-sustainability in Egyptian Small Scale Waste Water Treatment Plants
Keywords: CHP;
Hybrid renewable;
WWTP;
off-grid;
Sensitivity;
capital cost;
conventional;
emissions
Corresponding Author's Institution: Arab Academy for Science Technology and Maritime Transport
Order of Authors: Walid A. M. Ghoneim, Ph.D.; Ahmed Halaby, M.Sc.; Ahmed A Helal, Ph.D.
Abstract: The paper presents the sensitivity analysis for the utilization of renewable energy sources in
small-scale wastewater treatment field and the related comparative studies versus conventional power
sources. The research is based on a pilot wastewater treatment plant to be powered with entirely off-
grid renewable hybrid system with minimum life-cycle cost and minimum possible emissions. The
hybrid power system optimum configuration consists of fuel cell, micro-turbine, wind turbine and
photovoltaic systems. The sensitivity analysis introduced here aims at identifying the system effective
variables in the case-study to derive general rules which can be used for other wastewater treatment
plants countrywide. Through using HOMER software, the sensitivity analysis studies the effect of
renewable energy potentials and the capital cost of the power subsystems. Besides, the paper
measures the feasibility strength of the base hybrid system by holding comparisons with conventional
power systems. The comparative studies determine the breakpoints and feasibility zones which grant
the preference of the hybrid system.
Ibrahim Elmohr
ielmohry@yahoo.com
Checklist for New Submissions
(1) I W. A. M. Ghoneim confirm that the work described has not been published
previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or
academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its
publication is approved by all authors and that, if accepted, it will not be published
elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written
consent of the Publisher.
(4) The source document has been prepared prepared in 12 or 10 point font size,
preferably 12 points
W. A. M.G.
(5) The source document is in one column per page
W. A. M.G.
(6) The figures and tables have been supplied: either integrated with the text file or
as separate files.
W. A. M.G.
Highlights (for review)
Highlights
- CHP proves highly effective than PV and WTS even if its capital cost is much higher.
- The presented hybrid system is superior versus diesel generator with real fuel prices.
- Emissions released from the system represent only 17% of grid emissions.
Cover letter
Click here to view linked References
1
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3 Walid A. M. Ghoneim (First and Corresponding Author)
4 Borg A Abrag Masr leltameer
5
In front of El Montaza Train Station
6
7 El Montaza Alexandria Egypt
8 Email: walidghoneim1970@yahoo.co.uk
9 Tel.: +201001543356
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May 7, 2014
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15 Editor-in-Chief
16 Energy Conversion and Management Journal
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Dear Editor-in-Chief:
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22 According to the world data bank, the electrical energy consumption in Egypt has
23 increased from 95,308 GWh in year 2005 to 138,374 GWh in 2011, and nowadays, there
24 is an energy crisis. One of the largest consumers of energy is Wastewater Treatment
25 Plants as an energy intensive process. Till 2008, there were 303 wastewater treatment
26
27 plants (WWTPs) with a total treated water capacity of 11,853,000 m3 d-1.
28
29 In an arid country such as Egypt, where water is scarce in general, wastewater reuse
30 should be encouraged and promoted whenever, especially in terms of public health; it is
31 safe and economically feasible. However, the expansion of water treatment facilities will
32
33
demand parallel expansion in conventional power plants which is another economical
34 challenge and a long-term solution unless other techniques are used like the installation
35 of renewable energy-based systems. Using entirely renewable standalone power system
36 remains unfeasible in many applications because of the intermittent nature of RES, which
37 results a significant capital cost.
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39
40 The work presented in this paper is extracted from a M.Sc. thesis by Eng. A. Halaby, who
41 is a project engineer for Waste Water Treatment Plants, and supervised by Prof.A. Helal
42 and myself. In this thesis, the data of a WWTP in Toukh, Egypt was taken as case-study
43 for a typical rural small-scale plant. The feasibility of supplying the plant with entirely
44
45
renewable energy-based standalone hybrid system with minimum amount of emissions
46 released was studied. The high biodegradability of rural wastewater yielded a relatively
47 high biogas production when anaerobic digestion is used. The study used solid oxide fuel
48 cell-microturbine hybrid (SOFC-MT), photovoltaic (PV) system and wind turbine system
49 (WTS) combined to supply the plant independently without the need for any
50
51 conventional power source.
52
53 This paper presents the study of running the sensitivity analysis to measure the effect
54 of system variables on NPC cost which is considered the primary indicator for system
55 feasibility and hence, expands the feasibility study to cover different conditions.
56
57 Finally, the paper compares the base system with the cases of using grid-extension or
58 diesel generator. The comparison results show the breakeven distance between the plant
59 and nearest grid point and critical diesel fuel price at which the hybrid system, in both
60 cases, becomes more feasible. Beside the feasibility, the research evaluates the
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1 Editor-in-Chief Journal of Energy Conservation and Managment
2 May 7, 2014
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7 emissions produced by each system to measure how far the hybrid system is
8 environmentally advantageous.
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Implementing the scope of this work in small-scale WWTP will lead to a saving of up to
12 8% of the energy produced nationwide and can minimize the gap between electricity
13 consumption and generation.
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Awaiting your feedback
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20 Sincerely,
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25 Walid Ghoneim, Ph.D
26 Associate Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Control,
27
28 Faculty of Engineering and Technology,
29 Arab Academy for Science and Technology,
30 Alexandria,
31 Egypt.
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*Complete Manuscript including All Figs & Tables
Click here to view linked References
2 Treatment Plants
5 W. A. M. Ghoneim, Ph.D.
6 Associate Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Control, Faculty of Engineering and
8 Email: walidghoneim1970@yahoo.co.uk
9 Phone: +201001543356
10 Second Author:
11 A. Halabi, M.Sc.
14 Third Author:
15 A. A. A. Helal, Ph.D.
16 Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Control, Faculty of Engineering and Technology,
19 The paper presents the sensitivity analysis for the utilization of renewable energy sources in
20 small-scale wastewater treatment field and the related comparative studies versus
21 conventional power sources. The research is based on a pilot wastewater treatment plant to
22 be powered with entirely off-grid renewable hybrid system with minimum life-cycle cost and
23 minimum possible emissions. The hybrid power system optimum configuration consists of
24 fuel cell, micro-turbine, wind turbine and photovoltaic systems. The sensitivity analysis
25 introduced here aims at identifying the system effective variables in the case-study to derive
26 general rules which can be used for other wastewater treatment plants countrywide. Through
27 using HOMER software, the sensitivity analysis studies the effect of renewable energy
28 potentials and the capital cost of the power subsystems. Besides, the paper measures the
29 feasibility strength of the base hybrid system by holding comparisons with conventional
30 power systems. The comparative studies determine the breakpoints and feasibility zones
32
33 Keywords:
34 CHP; Hybrid renewable; WWTP; off-grid; Sensitivity; capital cost; conventional; emissions
35
36 1. Introduction
37 One of the important utilization of renewable energy sources (RES) is to electrify either
38 remote villages in rural areas located so far from power stations and distribution networks or
39 villages located in rugged terrains where utility lines are uneconomical to install (Kalantar and
40 Mousavi,2010; Erdinc and Uzunoglu, 2012). Combining renewable energy to form standalone
41 hybrid systems is an interesting solution for the electricity supply in these regions (C. Ziogou
42 et al., 2011). Renewable energy sources and their energy conversion devices also offer a
43 solution for greenhouse gas emissions and atmosphere temperature (Ayres et al., 2007;
44 Sanseverino et al., 2011). However, the primary advantage of RES is closing the gap between
45 electricity consumption & generation. The continuous fast growth of electrical demands is
46 hardly met by the conventional power sources. This is because fossil fuels used by these
47 power sources are rapidly depleting which doubles the problem in the near future and
48 boundlessly increase fuel prices (Ball et al., 2007; Rehman et al., 2007; Del Real et al., 2009).
49 According to the world data bank, the electrical energy consumption in Egypt has increased
50 from 95,308 GWh in year 2005 to 138,374 GWh in 2011. One of the largest consumers of
51 energy are Wastewater treatment plants as water treatment is an energy intensive process
52 (Tassou , 1988; WEF, 1997). Till 2008, there were 303 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs)
53 with a total treated water capacity of 11,853,000 m3 d-1 (Ghazy et al., 2009).
54 In an arid country such as Egypt, where water is scarce in general, wastewater reuse should
55 be encouraged and promoted whenever, especially in terms of public health; it is safe and
56 economically feasible (El Gamal et al., 2005). However, the expansion of water treatment
57 facilities will demand parallel expansion in conventional power plants unless other techniques
58 are used like the installation of renewable energy-based systems. A major drawback in this
59 technique is the vulnerability to unpredictable climatic changes (Zahedi, 1996). For this
60 reason, renewable energy systems, despite being efficient solution for providing a sustainable
61 power supply, are commonly used as subsystems beside a conventional power source in the
62 hybrid system (Lazarov , 2005; Shaahid and Elhadidy, 2007; Kornelakis , 2010). Using entirely
63 renewable standalone power system remains unfeasible in many applications because of the
64 intermittent nature of RES, which results a significant capital cost (Korpaas , 2003). A former
65 work, introduced in (Helal et al., 2013) used the data of a WWTP in Toukh, Egypt as a case-
66 study for a typical rural small-scale plant. The scope was studying the feasibility of supplying
67 the plant with entirely renewable energy-based standalone hybrid system with minimum
69 relatively high biogas production when anaerobic digestion is used. The study used solid oxide
70 fuel cell-microturbine hybrid (SOFC-MT), photovoltaic (PV) system and wind turbine system
71 (WTS) combined to supply the plant independently without the need for any conventional
72 power source. HOMER software was used to model RES potential, energy conversion devices,
73 electrical load and energy storage system (Battery bank) and determine the optimum size of
74 each subsystem which grants lowest lifecycle cost or net present cost (NPC). This paper
75 continues the study with running the sensitivity analysis to measure the effect of system
76 variables on NPC cost which is considered the primary indicator for system feasibility and
77 hence, expands the feasibility study to cover different conditions. Finally, the paper compares
78 the base system with the cases of using grid-extension or diesel generator. The comparison
79 results show the breakeven distance between the plant and nearest grid point and critical
80 diesel fuel price at which the hybrid system, in both cases, becomes more feasible. Beside the
81 feasibility, the research evaluates the emissions produced by each system to measure how far
83
84 2. System Modeling
85 According to the plant data, the daily energy consumption is 4,815 kWh d-1.The energy
86 resources modeled in the software included the digester gas volume, solar radiation and wind
87 speed. The operating point of anaerobic digester gas (ADG) volume, evaluated from energy
88 recovery calculations of the plant, is 44.6 m3 d-1. The daily average radiation of the site per
89 unit area of horizontal surface and wind speed are 5.52 kWh m2 d-1 and 4.75 m s-1 respectively
90 (Helal et al., 2013). As for modeling the combined-heat-power (CHP) system, there are no
91 direct models for SOFC or MT in HOMER. However, the program allows modeling any fuel-fed
92 power source through entering the fuel curve to a general-purpose model called (Generator).
93 The fuel curve of a power source expresses the relation between the fuel consumption and
94 output power. After entering the fuel curve data, HOMER evaluates the efficiency curve which
95 expresses the relation between the generator output and efficiency. Figure 1 shows the part-
96 load efficiency curve of the CHP micro-turbine, modeled by HOMER, after entering the fuel
97 curve data. Helal et al. (2013) justified the possibility of modeling SOFC-MT hybrid model
60
50
Efficiency
40
30
20
10
0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Output (%)
99 El ectri cal T hermal T otal
101 The study of the lifetime, capital, operating & maintenance (O&M) costs of SOFC and MT was
102 covered in general by (George and Bessette, 1998; Spiegel et al, 1999; Goldstein et al., 2003;
103 Breeze, 2005; Ameri and Heidari, 2006; Soares, 2007; EPA, 2008; Wiser et al., 2010; Becker et
104 al., 2012). Helal et al. (2013) concluded that the total installed costs, O&M costs, lifetime for
105 SOFC & MT used in the model are 4,000$ kW-1 , 2500$ kW-1 , 0.025$ kWh-1 , 0.015$ kWh-1 ,
106 60000 hours and 50000 hours respectively. Modeling WTS, PV system and battery banks
107 meant to enter commercial models technical data in parallel with their market prices to
108 ensure accurate input data in HOMER. Literature reviews for their general prices in the market
109 are found in (Masters, 2004; Breeze, 2005; Tidball, 2010; Al-Badi et al., 2011).
111 Helal et al. (2013) considered the study of all possible connection topologies including DC-DC,
112 DC-AC, AC-DC, AC-AC for PV and WTS respectively. The optimization results were detailed in
113 (Helal et al., 2013), table 2. The study showed that the best connection topology is to couple
114 both PV & WTS systems to the DC bus as shown in figure 2 (scenario DC-DC). The Optimum
115 system is introduced by through using all energy conversion devices without elimination,
116 resulting NPC of 3,682,842$. The optimum system data (which represent the reference case
117 for sensitivity analysis) is detailed here in table1. The data includes the renewable energy
118 potentials, capital cost of basic subsystems and total NPC cost.
119
120
122
123
124
125
126
127
128 Table 1. Optimum system Data
Bank
Radiation Volume
RES Value 5.52 kWh m- 4.75 m s-1 44.6 m3 --- --- ---
2 -1
d
kW
(avg.)
129
130
131
132
133 4. Sensitivity and Comparative studies
135 Sensitivity study helps assess the effects of uncertainty or changes in the variables over which
136 the designer has no control, such as the average wind speed or the future fuel price. HOMER
137 performs multiple optimizations, each using a different set of input assumptions (Farret and
138 Simoes , 2006). Sensitivity study here is used to identify the effective variables of the system
139 and to deduce general rules-of-thumb which can be applied under different conditions. This is
140 done through three cases; the first case studies the effect of each individual energy resource
141 potential on the system NPC. The second case studies the effect of varying all the resources
142 on optimal system type. The optimal system type or category expresses the optimum case of
143 each possible combination of the hybrid subsystems. In the first and second cases, the
144 sensitivity analysis is performed for set of values of the variables including solar radiation,
145 wind speed and digester gas volume. The third case deals with uncertainty of changing the
146 subsystems capital cost on the total NPC and choice of optimum units size. The variables in
147 the third case include the capital cost of PV, WTS and CHP systems.
149 In order to show how far the hybrid renewable energy micro-power system is from feasibility,
150 the presented case-study is compared with other conventional power systems. The
151 Comparisons show the conditions and the threshold points at which the system becomes
152 more feasible than the conventional cases. The first conventional solution for an off-grid
153 WWTP is to extend the grid by erecting transmission systems. However, the cost of grid-
154 extension is a function of distance. If the distance between the WWTP and nearest grid point
155 is far, the grid extension will be high and probably not feasible. To deal with uncertainty in
156 grid-extension case, total NPC is evaluated through different terrains topography on which
157 transmission lines are erected. Capital costs of $8k km-1, $12k km-1 and $22 k km -1
are
158 adapted for plain, normal and rugged terrains respectively with O&M cost of $180 km -1
159 (Canada et al., 2005; Girona , 2008). The price of electricity used in calculations is the
160 subsidized Egyptian tariff; that is 0.25EGP (0.0417$). The results determine the breakeven
161 distance at which the total NPC of the hybrid system equals the total NPC in grid extension
162 case.
163
164 According to Arab Electricity magazine, issue 109, July-September 2012, electricity consumption for subscribers
165 up to 500kW.
166 The second conventional solution is the diesel generator, which is used as primary power
167 system for plants in off-grid areas. Although It has low capital cost, its O&M costs are
168 relatively high (ESMAP , 2001; SELF, 2012). Necessary data are obtained for modeling a new
169 case of powering the plant loads with 280 kW diesel generator systems in HOMER. The fuel
170 cost used in simulation is 1.2 EGP (about 0.2$ according to 2013 currency exchange), which
171 resembles the subsidized diesel fuel price in Egypt. As fuel price is subjected to rise, the diesel
172 fuel price is dealt as a sensitivity variable to determine the critical price which causes the total
173 NPC of diesel generator system equals the total NPC of the hybrid system. Besides, emissions
174 in every case are assessed to measure the strength of the hybrid system from the
175 environmental perspective. Using ADG as a fuel for plant services replaces the consumption of
176 fossil fuels. While the production of CO2 from those fuels is avoided, the CO2 produced from
177 burning ADG is a part of closed carbon cycles and does not contribute to increasing
178 atmospheric CO2 levels (Wilkie , 2005). The evaluation of emissions considers calculating the
179 equivalent CO2 (CO2E) in three cases. The cases include (i) Using electrical grid with
180 supplementary natural gas-fueled boiler for the plant electrical and thermal loads
181 respectively. (ii) Using diesel generator with supplementary natural gas-fueled boiler (iii)
182 consideration of ADG and using the introduced hybrid system. Definition of equivalent CO2
183 emissions is found in (Filho, 2010). No gas collection system is assumed in cases (i), (ii) and
184 ADG is flared before release in atmosphere. The assessment in case (i) assumes a natural gas-
185 fueled steam turbine power plant for the electrical grid with 30% efficiency. The boiler in
186 cases (i) and (ii) is assumed to have 80% burner efficiency. Evaluation of CO2E in case (i) results
187 from the sum of three contributors; the emissions released from the power plant to supply
188 the plant electrically, the emissions released from the boilers to supply the thermal loads and
189 finally, the emissions released from flaring ADG into the atmosphere. The third contributor,
190 despite being counted as emissions released from the plant, doesnt count as global warming
191 contributor as mentioned earlier. Evaluation of CO2E in case (ii) is similar to case (i) except the
192 first contributor which counts the emissions released from burning diesel fuel instead of
193 natural gas. In case (iii), both PV & WTS produce zero emissions being clean power sources.
194 CHP system uses ADG as a renewable fuel. SOFC produces minimal emissions from its
195 reformer. Fuel combustion doesnt take place in MT as it receives the SOFC exhaust as input.
196 In other words, the emissions produced from the hybrid system in case (iii) are confined to the
197 emissions produced from SOFC. Necessary data and equations adapted in calculations like
198 CO2E of natural gas, digester gas flaring and diesel are found in (Zabihian and Fung, 2008;
203 The results of the first sensitivity case, which deals with changing each individual resource
204 potential, are shown in figure 3. In case of changing the solar radiation, the total NPC is almost
205 constant as the increased solar radiation offers just limited increase in kWh production from
206 PV system. In case of varying the wind speed, the curve basically follows the wind turbine
207 power curve. At very low wind speeds, the NPC rate of reduction is low because the wind
208 speed is frequently lower than the turbine cut-in speed. As a result, periods with zero wind-
209 turbines-output over the year are frequent offering small change in WTS power production
210 and hence total NPC. The slope increases for wind speeds round and above the cut-in speed
211 because the wind turbine works in the linear region of its power curve. In this region, the
212 turbine power output is directly proportional to the cube of wind speed. When wind speeds
213 get higher, the turbine approaches its rated output power region of the curve. Thus, the rate
214 of power production and the total NPC rate of reduction decrease again.
215
216
218 The change in ADG production has the strongest effect on the system NPC. The NPC
219 dramatically decreases when CHP input flow increases from 41.3 to 44.6 m hr-1 because the
220 output thermal power from the fuel cell became high enough to better drive the micro-
221 turbine and use the SOFC-MT hybrid model. Further increase in FC power would allow
222 installation of higher MT capacity once the FC output thermal energy is high enough. The total
223 NPC increases at 70m hr-1 due to the fact that the obtained CHP system operating at this
226 Running sensitivity analysis on three energy resources together gives a three dimension plot.
227 Two sectional planes are studied at two fixed points of ADG production yielding two
228 dimensions (surface) plot per section. This is indicated in figure 4 and figure 5, which view the
229 effect of the resources variables on optimal system type at the operating (44.6 m3 d-1) and
230 maximum theoretical (59.5 m3 d-1) points of ADG production evaluated earlier in (Helal et al.,
231 2013).
232
233 Figure 4. The optimal system type at 44.6m hr-1 ADG utilization
234 Figure 4 clears that using WTS is infeasible if average wind speed is less than 3m s-1. Above
235 this speed, noticeable reduction in batteries number takes place as WTS joins the optimum
236 configuration. At the maximum theoritical ADG production as shown in figure 5, the number
237 of batteries are reduced greatly compared to figure 4. Also, the feasibility of WTS withdraws
238 to start from 4 m s-1 wind speed.This reflects the effectiveness of using ADG and the
239 importance of maximizing its production. A way to maximize ADG production is (FOG) method
240 which includes adding food, oil and grease to the digester (EPA CHPP, 2011; Kulkarni, 2009).
241
242
245 The capital cost, including the installation of energy conversion devices, is subjected to
246 decrease due to market competition or increase due to difficult environment for installation.
247 An example of the uncertainty results are indicated in figure 6, which shows the surface plot
248 of the percentage reduction of the overall system's NPC when varying the CHP and WTS
249 capital costs. The base system cuts zero-plan at the base case (representing 0% NPC
250 reduction).
251
252 Figure 6. The effect of CHP & WTS capital cost variation on the total NPC
253
254 The variation of the WTS capital cost regardless of the CHP cost causes a 14% average range of
255 reduction of the total NPC. This is indicated from averaging the difference between the
256 extreme points of each horizontal gridline of the surface. As for the CHP, the average
257 percentage reduction range is 36% regardless of the WTS capital cost (indicated from
258 averaging the difference between the extreme points of each the vertical gridlines of the
259 surface).
260 Similar results were denoted at 50% and 150% PV system capital cost with system NPC
261 reduction range of 13% and 15% for WTS system, 39% and 34% for CHP respectively. PV
262 system causes reduction range of 16% when putting it on an axis (Figure 7).
263
264 Figure 7. The effect of PV & WTS capital cost variation on the total NPC
265 These results emphasis the high sensitivity of total NPC towards CHP capital cost and that any
266 change in CHP capital cost affects the total NPC greatly. This may reflect that the full use of
267 ADG and the relevant CHP could be unlikely if their cost is high. However, figure 8 denies this
268 fact; the figure sets a cost comparison between the capital cost of the DC subsystem
269 (including PV, WTS and battery banks) and AC subsystem which includes CHP system. The Z-
270 axis gives the size of each energy conversion device as an output. The CHP system shows solid
271 feasibility as the optimum system in every point comprises the maximum capacity of CHP
272 system even if its capital cost is increased to 160% versus 25% of DC subsystem base-case
273 capital cost. This result implies that the maximum available capacity of CHP system must be
276 and there are more than 97 activated sludge type WWTPS in Egypt; having a total treated
277 water capacity of 6,703,000 m3 d-1 (Ghazy et al., 2009). Assuming the average energy
278 consumption for those plants as 0.528 kWh/m3 (WEF, 2009), the use of the entirely renewable
279 hybrid system can save 1,292.4 GWh/year which is equivalent to 0.9% of the total electrical
281
282 Figure 8. Effect of changing components capital cost on optimum units size
284 In case of comparing the proposed hybrid system with grid extension, the hybrid system NPC
285 keeps constant value versus distance. The results in figure 9 show that the breakeven
286 distances, at which the hybrid system NPC equals the grid-extension costs, are 263, 190 and
287 112km for plain, normal and rugged terrains respectively. Above these distances, the hybrid
288 system gets more feasible than the grid-extension option. Without tariff subsidizing, the
289 hybrid system becomes more feasible than using the grid solution even in grid-connected
290 areas. In case of using the diesel generator, figure 10 which shows the diesel generator
291 solution yearly cash flow indicates that the system NPC is more feasible but it is highly
292 sensitive towards fuel cost. As figure 11 states, the critical fuel price which initiates the hybrid
293 system feasibility is 3.3 EGP (0.55$). As a matter of fact, the unsubsidized diesel fuel price is
294 higher than this critical value. The comparison didnt consider the cost of diesel fuel
295 transportation which would increase the feasibility of the hybrid system if counted.
296
297
301
303 Figure 12 summarizes the emissions assessments in the cases considered in section 4.2. In
304 case (i), the emissions released due to the use of grid, boiler - for electrical and thermal loads
305 - and flaring ADG equal 1,990 ton CO2E per year. Emissions released in diesel generator case
306 are 2,140 ton CO2E per year. The hybrid system reduces the emissions by 83% as it releases
307 only 330 ton CO2E yr-1 without contributing in global warming.
308
309 Figure 12. The emission assessment (RES Hybrid system VS conventional power systems)
310 6. Conclusion
311 The paper presented the sensitivity analysis for a standalone micro-power system serving a
312 wastewater treatment plant and its related comparative studies with conventional power
313 systems. The system is supplied by energy sources which are entirely renewable. The paper
314 uses the data of Toukh WWTP as a case study. The obtained optimum hybrid system included
315 a 140kW CHP fuel cell, a 26 kW CHP micro-turbine, a 200kW wind turbine system, a 100kW PV
316 system, 720 batteries and an 80kW converter to drive the plant as a standalone system.
317 Sensitivity analysis showed that the system is least sensitive to the solar radiation; relatively
318 sensitive to wind speed and highly sensitive to ADG volume. Maximizing the ADG production
319 is a key factor to minimize the system NPC. Investment in the CHP system is essential even if
320 its capital cost is much higher than other subsystems. Comparative studies gave the
321 advantage of the hybrid system feasibility within few hundreds of kilometers between the
322 plant and nearest grid point and when the diesel generator fuel price exceeds 0.55$ l -1. The
323 hybrid system proved to be instantaneously feasible when the unsubsidized electric tariff and
324 diesel fuel price are considered. In addition, the system offers emissions reduction by nearly
326
327 Nomenclature
331 MT Micro-turbine
334 PV Photovoltaic
339
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