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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
This paper presents a model to assess strategies for bettering a hexane condensation system
from an olive oil extraction refinery in Portugal’s mountainous north. The water used as a cooling
fluid is discharged with a higher temperature than the mountain river, provoking the deterioration
of the aquatic flora and fauna, leading to high environmental impact. The model allowed the
comparison of solutions for different temperatures of discharge for summer and winter and possible
heat recovery back to the factory. The current condensation system power is 1.838MWand consists of
a four-walled pond of 115.3 m3 that cools down the submerged hexane pipes. Nudging in the pond’s
structure leads to the introduction of internal channels to increase the turbulence, thus increasing the
hexane–water heat exchange rate. Heat recovery of 19.38 kW is possible for the water coming from
the pond in the drying bagasse process inside the factory, before discharge into the river. However,
the model demonstrates that the decrease in temperature after the heat recovery process falls short
of avoiding thermal pollution, leading to complementary actions such as shading the channel or
changing the discharge velocity or angle to mitigate the thermal pollution locally.
Description
Keywords
Thermal pollution Energy efficiency Heat exchange
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Ribeiro, Luís Frölén; Aguilera, Oscar Antonio; Hérnandez, Zulimar (2021). Thermal pollution mitigation and energy harnessing of the condensation process of an olive oil extraction refinery: a case study. Environments. ISSN 2076-3298. 8:8, p. 1-11