energy, exergy, and exergo-economic analyses of urmia sugar factory: a case study of iran

Sugar beet production is low in iran, and about 50% of sugar demand is imported from other countries# meanwhile, the factories are old in iran, and novel technologies are not employed, and consequently, the sugar production unit cost is high# sugar production is one of the most important industries# therefore, in this work, a case study of the urmia sugar factory is analyzed# the system is analyzed from thermodynamic and thermo-economic viewpoints# the results show that cogeneration, purification, and crystallization units have the highest exergy destruction, respectively# also, the cogeneration unit with 20#17%, purification unit with 89#25%, and condensation unit with 91#31% have the lowest second law efficiency, respectively# the total exergy efficiency of the plant is found to be 56#44%# furthermore, the input cost rate of cogeneration is 1492 ($/h)#