Economic profitability and environmental impact for the installation of a cogeneration system in an aframax oil tanker

Abstract

Nowadays, maritime transport has many challenges. Fuel consumption is necessary to make work the main and auxiliary systems, electrical and electronic equipment. However, during the process of consumption part of the thermal energy is not used, contributing to environmental impacts. In this context, ships share the concern, and to illustrate this, it is performed an “Economic Profitability and Environmental Impact for the Installation of a Cogeneration System in an Aframax Oil Tanker”. From the exhaust gases and implementing thermodynamic techniques it is possible to know the amount of recoverable energy using a gas turbine, steam or combined cycles. The feasibility of its application is based on the fuel saved by not using the auxiliary engines totally or partially, and evaluating in a period of 15 years through financial indexes. Finally, knowing the fuel savings, it is demonstrated how many of air pollutants (CO2, NOX, SOX and PM) would be avoided for installing the cogeneration system.