Design and Evaluation of a Hybridized Energy System for Remote Palm Oil Mill and Community

Abstract

This study centered on the design and evaluation of a solar-biomass energy system for a remote oil mill and host community. The renewable energy sources considered in this research are solar energy and biomass energy from the oil-palm wastes at Ada Palm Oil Mill, Etekwuru-Egbema in Imo State Nigeria. Ada Palm has an oil mill with capacity of 30tons FFB/hr with an average output of 121.5 tons/day biomass fuel. The total load demand for both the oil mill and host community was calculated using the point load and area survey methods. The area has a daily solar radiation average of4.53kWh/m^2/day. HOMER PRO was used for the simulation to obtain an optimal system. The design is a hybrid configuration consisting of solar PV, biogas generator, storage battery and a system converter. The optimal system obtained has a net present cost (NPC) of $519,942, an initial capital cost of $190,983 and a COE of $0.01709 which is slightly higher than the COE for the existing power supply system to the mill alone. The optimal system obtained consisted of a 400kW biogas generator and a 176kW PV with the PV producing 1