Economics of energy processing of wastes of agricultural and food production

Bc. Tornike Toradze

Master's thesis

Abstract:

The aim of the thesis was to analyse the potential of underutilised agricultural biomass waste in the region of Imereti in Georgia and to assess economic impact of creating a biomass processing plant. Data on availability of biomass resources, costs of processing and prices were collected in the study region in September 2017. Data confirmed that there is sufficient number of agricultural residues in the region for initiating the production. Accounting method was selected for assessing the competitiveness of the briquettes from waste biomass. Based on heat value of the briquettes, cost per heat unit in Gigajoule (GJ) was calculated. For comparison and determination of cost efficiency, we generated costs of thermal energy from fossil sources (natural gas, electric energy and coal). Final step was comparison of the price of an estimated heating value of these briquettes to the price of thermal energy received from fossil sources. The analysis of cost efficiency showed that cost of thermal energy of briquettes produced from waste biomass can be competitive in comparison with cost of thermal energy of other energy sources on the market. In addition, couple simulations were done, that showed the most important factors affecting efficiency and competitiveness of production: first, distance between the source of waste biomass and the place of pressing of briquettes, second, number of the workers involved.

Keywords

Economics, Biomass, Energy, Quantitative methods

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 26. 4. 2019

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: doc. Dr. RNDr. Tomáš Ratinger

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Master programme / field:
Tropical Agriculture / International Development and Agricultural Economics