Potential of Substituting Bagasse for Natural Gas in Karun Sugar Factory and Its Economic Evaluation

The objective of the current study was to investigate the energy consumption in Karun Sugar Factory and to assess, economically and technically, the potential of substituting natural gas by bagasse as a source of energy. The necessary data were collected throughout the factory documents and the factory expert’s interview during years 1395-1396. The results showed that the annual consumption of electricity and heat in the Karun sugar factory was 24 GWh and 890.83 tonnes steam respectively, which resulted in the emission of 195 tonnes of air pollutants with a social cost of 24.79 billion Rials. The net heat rate of the factory’s power plant calculated to be 27.15 MJ/KWh. Using 270,000 tonnes of surplus bagasse, there is the potential to generate 15.14% of total sugar plant energy and reduce 29,000 tonnes of pollutants per year. The rate of return and return time of the capital needed for modification the current boilers was 88.95% and 2 years respectively. Using bagasse instead of natural gas leads to 30.6 Billion Rials reduction in variable costs of the factory based on financial data of the year 1395.