FEASIBILY STUDY OF THE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF AGRIBIOMASS BRIQUETTES IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The purpose of the work is to carry out a preliminary feasibility study of some typical projects on the production and consumption of agribiomass briquettes in Ukraine. The task of the work is to analyse and summarize the results of the feasibility study. The research methods include an overview of the successful examples of the production and use of biomass briquettes in Ukraine, the identification of priority types of relevant projects, the assessment of the main technical and economic indicators of several typical bioenergy projects. The results of the work make it possible to conclude whether it is feasible or not to implement certain types of projects in this segment of bioenergy. It is shown that today in Ukraine there are already examples of successful implementation of projects on the production and consumption of different biomass type briquettes. These examples include projects implemented for grants and business projects. For Ukraine, several promising options for the production and use of biomass briquettes can be suggested. The three typical variants of the biofuel production projects are as follows: (1) a rural enterprise produces agribiomass briquettes and sells them as a substitute for expensive coal to the local population and other consumers using small boilers with manual loading; (2) villagers or members of a united territorial community create an energy cooperative within which they produce biomass briquettes for their own consumption; (3) a large agrarian enterprise produces briquettes from its own agricultural raw materials and sells the product partly to its employees, partly to other consumers. Typical types of projects for the use of biomass briquettes can be as follows: an individual consumer or a trade/service organization or an industrial/commercial enterprise uses biomass briquettes in an existing boiler (replacement of coal) or in a newly purchased boiler of the appropriate capacity (replacement of coal/natural gas). The results of the preliminary feasibility study of these typical projects show that all the projects are economically feasible with a discounted payback period of 3-5 years.