variavel0=<b>Marcela Loboguerrero Larrazabal</b> - asiuqsep@yahoo.com Instituto de Eletrotécnica e Energia da USP
<b>Silvio, Júnior Oliveira</b> - silvio.oliveira@poli.usp.br Escola Politécnica da USP
<b>Abstract.</b> This paper presents a comparative thermoeconomic analysis of cogeneration systems, utilizing natural gas, designed for a dairy industry in Colombia. Steam, chilled water, compressed air, electricity, cooling tower water and potable water must be provided for the processes of the plant. These comparisons were developed for a scenario in which the utilities plant can generate a surplus of electricity to be exported. The cogeneration systems are a steam cycle with extraction/condensation steam turbine, a gas turbine based system and a gas engine based system. In the thermoeconomic analysis the equality and extraction cost partition methods were utilized in order to determine the production costs of the utilities for each process in the plant, in the original operating condition and for each one of the considered operating scenarios for the cogeneration plants. This comparison indicates the feasibility of the cogeneration systems for each production scenario.
<b>Keywords.</b> Exergy, Thermoeconomic, Cogeneration, Dairy Industry.