Techno-Economic Assesment of Parabolic Trough Steam Generation for Hospital

Abstract: Hospitals are one of the most energy consuming centers in which thermal energy is utilized for different medical equipments and others. Sterilizers, laundry and kitchens are the main thermal energy utilizing equipments. In addition, large amount of hot water is utilized mainly for showering and dish washing. The main sources of this thermal energy are fossil fuel for oil fired boilers and solar irradiation for solar thermal steam generation system. This project aims in analyzing the Technical performance of parabolic trough steam generation and oil fired boiler steam generation system for Black lion general specialized hospital which is located in Addis Ababa and to perform economic assessment on both systems so as to make comparison test. The result from technical feasibility study shows the parabolic trough can meet the steam demand of the hospital at the required time, more than 8hour per day, as the hospital currently require steam for different activities during the day time for 8hour per day. During cloudy day the conventional back up steam generation system will meet the daily demand for few days of the year. The economic assessment result shows that although the initial investment of concentrated solar steam generation is high as compared to convention steam generation system, the reverse is observed in operation and maintenance cost, resulting solar thermal steam generation break even (payback) to occur early, after 7 year the system let to operate over the conventional oil fired steam generation. In addition the levelized cost of energy for concentrated solar steam generation is found to be 58% higher than conventional steam generation.   Hence, the result shows that parabolic trough is found to be more economical for steam generation than oil fired boiler. If solar thermal steam generation (parabolic through) is implemented, the fuel consumption and operational cost of the boiler can be reduced appreciably.