Feasibility study for partial decarbonization of the closure production process in Indian factories = Feasibility study for partial decarbonization of the closure production process in Indian factories

This work aims at proposing a combination of renewable technologies to partially decarbonize the process of four Indian factories that produce plastic closures in 2030. The first part is dedicated to the study of the closure process and the related input energy vectors. The energy consumption and the emissions are normalized to the production for each factory to have a comparison and to detect which factories require a strong emission reduction. Chosen the factories and basing to the location (India), photovoltaic panels and Proton-Exchange Membrane technologies are proposed, together with a suitable storage system, and their productivity is studied using formulas and parameters taken from literature. The optimal PV size proposed by a software (Homer Pro) is obtained from a simulation in which only PV is present, and it is used as input in an Excel algorithm to calculate the excess of energy and to dimension suitable technology capacities. Results show a good share of renewables in most of the selected factories and a strong emission reduction. Both parameters can be improved by varying the installed capacities. The final part concerns the techno-economic analysis to understand the investment required for each factory and the related revenues if present. Results show that the chosen technology sizes do not bring a positive Net Present Value with the assumed economic values and therefore either a stronger price reduction for PEM technologies and PV or a higher increasing rate in electricity price is required to make the investment economically feasible.