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Revista Forestal Mesoamericana Kurú
On-line version ISSN 2215-2504
Abstract
GUEVARA, Gregory; ARIAS, Dagoberto; VALVERDE, Juan Carlos and CAMPOS, Rooel. Technical and financial feasibility of growing Pennisetum purpureum (Schumach) for production of biomass for electric generation. Kurú [online]. 2018, vol.15, suppl.1, pp.7-15. Epub July 19, 2019. ISSN 2215-2504. http://dx.doi.org/10.18845/rfmk.v15i1.3710.
Pennisetum purpureum (Schumach) is a fast-growing herbaceous species with calorimetric properties which gives it ideal conditions to be implemented in biomass projects of electricity generation for Costa Rica. The present study assessed the technical and financial feasibility of the species within conditions of a high-density plantation; for which a pilot plantation of 12 hectares was established in Guanacaste, Costa Rica and was managed with a production cycle of 159 days, limiting its running to applications of three nutritional doses of nitrogen (85, 131 and 17 kg ha-1); after harvesting, the accumulated biomass, the caloric power, and its financial viability were evaluated to be implemented in a boiler of 2 MW of power. The results showed a harvest of: 85 to 110 ton ha-1 of dry biomass and found the highest values in the treatment that used higher doses of nitrogen; it was also found that the dry biomass of the species is just 24 % of the total biomass, but with a caloric power greater than 3800 cal g-1, which showed the actual electrical potential to be 1.33 MWh ton-1 (considering a boiler with an efficiency of 30 %), enough for a plantation of 200 ha with two harvest cycles per year and at a distance of less than 45 km from the plant to generate electricity with a financially acceptable profitability; the financial analysis showed this type of project is viable as long as the production of biomass is not less than 120 ton ha-1, the cost of the kilowatt time is lower 0.10 USD and the plantations are not more than 45 km away from the plant.
Keywords : Herbaceous species; bioenergy; technical analyze; financial analyze; dendroenergetic plantation.