Integration of absorption heat pumps in a Kraft pulp process for enhanced energy efficiency

Andrea Costa, Bahador Bakhtiari, Sebastian Schuster and Jean Paris

Energy, 2009, vol. 34, issue 3, 254-260

Abstract: A preliminary feasibility study of the implementation of various absorption heat pump configurations in a Kraft pulping process has been performed. Three different cases were considered: (i) integration of a double lift heat transformer into the heat recovery circuit of the wood chips digesters to produce low pressure steam equivalent to 25% of the steam demand of the chemical pulping plant, (ii) a double effect chiller installed in the bleaching chemicals making plant to chill cooling water and produce middle pressure steam and, (iii) a heat pump installed on the steam extraction line of a turbine which, combined with the addition of a condensing unit, increases substantially the power output. The simple payback time and net present value were used to compare the three cases. Both indices are highly dependant upon steam prices. The net present value is, in all cases, positive, which indicates that the equipment is viable using the assumed cost and efficiency data in this study. Absorption heat pumps are increasingly attractive options for energy upgrading and conversion in a context of increasing energy costs.

Keywords: Absorption heat pumps; Heat transformers; Cogeneration; Tri-generation; Green power; Heat recovery; GHG emissions; Kraft pulping; Economic assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544208001862
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:34:y:2009:i:3:p:254-260

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2008.07.019

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().