Techno-Economic Feasibility Study of Renewable Power Systems for a Small-Scale Plasma-Assisted Nitric Acid Plant in Africa

Aikaterini Anastasopoulou,Martin Fregene,Sughosh Butala,Volker Hessel,John Suberu,Qi Wang,Bhaskar Patil,Juergen Lang

doi:10.3390/pr4040054

Abstract

The expected world population growth by 2050 is likely to pose great challenges in the global food demand and, in turn, in the fertilizer consumption. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations has forecasted that 46% of this projected growth will be attributed to Africa. This, in turn, raises further concerns about the sustainability of Africa’s contemporary fertilizer production, considering also its high dependence on fertilizer imports. Based on these facts, a novel “green” route for the synthesis of fertilizers has been considered in the context of the African agriculture by means of plasma technology. More precisely, a techno-economic feasibility study has been conducted for a small-scale plasma-assisted nitric acid plant located in Kenya and South Africa with respect to the electricity provision by renewable energy sources. In this study, standalone solar and wind power systems, as well as a hybrid system, have been assessed for two different electricity loads against certain economic criteria. The relevant simulations have been carried out in HOMER software and the optimized configurations of each examined renewable power system are presented in this study.

Highlights

As the world population is increasing rapidly and is expected to reach up to 9.1 billion people by the end of 2050 [1], there are even greater concerns about the future global food demand and the sustainable agricultural practices that should be widely implemented
Manifold simulations have been conducted for each renewable power system examined in both process design scenarios for the two selected countries, and the optimized configurations with respect to the minimum net present cost (NPC) have been determined
For scenario A and the case of Kenya, as it can be deduced from Table 3b, the best performing power system with respect to the lowest NPC and the cost of electricity (COE) is the hybrid system, in which PV panels and wind turbines contribute overall by 74% and 26%, respectively, to the total electricity production

Summary

Introduction

As the world population is increasing rapidly and is expected to reach up to 9.1 billion people by the end of 2050 [1], there are even greater concerns about the future global food demand and the sustainable agricultural practices that should be widely implemented. The latter issue has been raised by the ineffective use of land resources and the burdened environmental profile of current fertilizer production. There is an imperative need for adopting and implementing an intensified fertilizer production practice that will ensure a sustainable fulfillment of the majority of the African countries’ domestic needs

Methods

Results

Conclusion