Technical and Financial Viability of Utilizing Waste Heat for Chilled Water Production and Biomass for Heating Applications in Hospitality Industry

Abstract: The purpose of the thesis is to determine the potential of lessening the high energy cost in the hospitality industry so that the industry could stay alive after a three decades of civil war in Sri Lanka. The hospitality industry is a significant contributor to the country’s economic growth. Tourism industry has much hope of recovering in the year 2010. Improved tourism would also benefit larger part of Sri Lankan population as they are directly and indirectly employed to serve the tourism industry. Sri Lanka has a high electricity production cost as it depends heavily on the imported fossil fuel. Survival of hospitality industry would depend on the manner in which the energy cost - the second highest overhead in hotels is managed. If the industry survives, Sri Lanka would receive more foreign exchange and thereby improve country’s foreign currency reserve which could contribute to high growth rate. As electricity production is mainly depending on thermal, the volatility of world crude oil prices is directly affecting the country’s electricity prices. However, low dependence on the grid would help the hospitality industry to mitigate the energy cost. As the electricity and diesel costs -the highest and the next - are considerable portions in energy cost in hospitality industry, the study aims to discuss the possible ways of mitigating such costs. Measurements done by the presenters found that the usage of electricity for air conditioning system does constitute most of the electricity consumption for a hotel whilst most of the diesel consumption is for thermal applications. If Air Conditioning (AC) can be operated without electricity and thermal applications could be operated using abundantly available alternative energy sources then the overall energy costs of hospitality industry could be reduced thereby making higher profits. This would ensure industry survives and country gets more foreign exchange.  Study and calculations done by the presenters proved that operating of generators only for electricity production is not viable, due to high fossil fuel cost, however if its high exhaust temperature which is wasted otherwise, could be utilized for operation of absorption chillier then the dependence of grid electricity for air conditioning could be minimized. Further studies also revealed that if water cooled generator is used for such purpose instead of air cooled, and then the hot water requirement of hotel also could be fulfilled, thus mitigating the dependence of fossil fuel which is used otherwise for hot water production. Study also revealed that if thermal energy could be fed with biomass- Sri Lanka being a tropical country is blessed with abundantly available biomass - then the dependency on the fossil fuel for thermal applications could be avoided. This would not only mitigate the second highest energy cost for hotels but also create less carbon foot print, more environmental friendly and produce less noxious exhaust gases thereby creating an advertisement to attract tourists who longing to support green hotels