Exergy analysis: Another imperative aspect for life cycle assessment on biomass energy system

抄録

This paper presents the exergy analysis results for the production of bioethanol from three sugar bio-refineries. The life cycle involves 3 main stages: 1) sugarcane plantation, 2) sugar refinery, and 3) ethanol production. The apparent distinction between each factory is the source of energy utilized to operate the production system i.e. coal, biogas, and bagasse. In general, an energy form with high exergy content is more valuable and desirable than that with low exergy content. In this report, energy analysis is as well conducted for comparison. The aim of this paper is to illustrate how meaningful for exergy analysis. This study also helps accounting for the depletion of natural resources in each case study which can be defined as the difference between renewable and fossil resources.