LAUSR

Abstract Investment in renewable energy sources has grown substantially since the late 1980s, which together with the 1970s oil crisis and the concern about greenhouse gas emissions have led to the increasingly intensive use of renewable energy sources such as wind, biomass and solar energies. Thus, Brazil is now one of the countries with that have a large share of renewable energy sources in its electricity matrix. In this study, the use of a hybrid system composed of a solar field, a biomass burner, an ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) cycle and an absorption cooling system is proposed to supply the energy demand (1,000 kW electricity and 300 kW cold-water) of a small industrial plant in the Midwest region of the country. The ORC system is simulated for seven different organic fluids and its performance is evaluated through energy, exergetic and economic analyses. Among the fluids analyzed, cyclohexane stood out with the best energy, exergetic and economic viability (internal rate of return (IRR) of 6%). The economic parameters that most influence the IRR value are the cost of electricity, the costs of solar collectors and biomass.