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Application of Solar Energy Heating System in Some Oil Industry Units and its Economy

Abd El Rahman AM, Nafey AS and Hassanien MHM

Energy is one of the building blocks of modern society. Once an exporter of oil and gas, Egypt is now struggling to meet its own energy needs. In oil industry there is an energy problem due to fuel and electricity consumption and refinery losses in a way that reduces the net profit of the industry. There are also environmental problems due to carbon dioxide emissions which is a major source of the global warming problem. As Egypt is blessed with geographic location in the Sun Belt area with 325 days of sun in a year, solar energy can be used as a source of energy that reduces fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. The current study presents solar energy heating system that can be used for heating applications in some oil industry units. The study has been divided in two parts, the first one concerned with choosing the most appropriate solar system that can be used in such applications. Four different mathematical models for prediction of optical efficiency and thermal losses for the chosen system have been analyzed and then computerized using excel sheet program. Numerical comparison and also practical validation of the selected model have been done. For that paper under title of “Evaluation of Mathematical Models for Solar Thermal System” was published in October, 2016, American Journal of Energy Science. Visual basic program is then done for the validated model for good and friendly user interface. For the second part of the study, this paper concerned with performing an economic evaluation for providing feasibility and reliability conception about using the proposed system in some oil industry applications in number of Egyptian companies as preheating of crude oil for desalting in oil production (Khalda petroleum company), preheating of viscous oil for transportation enhancing and preheating of boiler feed water (Cairo oil refining company). The results shows that payback period for crude preheating before desalting is 20 years and for fuel oil and boiler feed water preheating are 7 years.