COST-EFFECTIVE OPTION OF COLD ENERGY UTILIZATION IN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY

Abstract

In pharmaceutical industries, nitrogen is used for several purposes, including inerting storage containers to prevent chemical reactions with oxygen at a temperature range of 2 to 8 °C. To meet these specifications, the regasification of liquefied nitrogen (LIN), transforming the liquefied nitrogen into gas phases at certain temperatures and pressures, is necessary. One potential solution that can be applied to increase efficiency and reduce costs while maintaining strict quality and safety standards in the pharmaceutical industry is a replacement of the conventional LIN regasification process with an organic Rankine cycle (ORC). This process could utilize cold energy from the process while using nitrogen as a cooling source and ambient air as the hot side of the thermodynamic cycle. Using the ORC system for this cold energy utilization is promising as the technology is now more developed, compact, relatively reasonable cost, and reliable. Since there are few investigations in cold energy utilization as power generation, this article discusses the techno-economic feasibility of the ORC system in the case of its application in pharmaceutical industries with a particular focus on cold energy utilization in LIN regasification. In this analysis, propane was selected as the working fluid of the ORC system as it has good criteria such as thermal properties, zero ozone depletion potential, and low global warming potential. The analysis was optimized for different heat source conditions. Several designs (with and without the direct expansion system) were developed. In the end, their techno-economic performances and cost-effectiveness were compared. The obtained results show that replacing the conventional LIN regasification in the pharmaceutical industry with an ORC system may improve the efficiency of the system and reduce power consumption. The results of the study additionally indicate that, in terms of cost-effectiveness, reusing existing components of the prior system – specifically, the nitrogen vaporizers and pump – would result in a 23.81% reduction in investment costs and a 22.00% decrease in levelized cost of energy (LCOE).