Paper
Energy and Economic Analysis of Spearmint Essential Oil Production: a Case Study - Golkaran Agro-Industrial Co
- Authors:
- Bahman Heydari; Ali Jafari; Shahin Rafiee; Ali Haji Ahmad; Mohammad Sharifi; Marziye Yousefi; Alireza Mazaheri
- Abstract
- This paper presents the energy and economic analysis of spearmint essential oil production by using the operational data as a case study of Golkaran agro-industrial CO, Iran. The spearmint essential oil production is conducted in three stages, including farming, essential oil production in the factory and refining-composting processes (post production processes). Fresh spearmint, its essential oil and compost are the main materials of the production system. The results indicate that spearmint essential oil production consumes a total energy of 161250.3 MJ ha-1.The input energy used in the process are electrical (33.40%), diesel (29.86%), natural gas (10.74%), fertilizers (13.53%), chemicals (0.41%), manure (3.12%), machinery (5.7%) and human labor (0.71%). Energy use efficiency, energy productivity, specific energy and net energy of spearmint essential oil production are 17.29, 0.29 kg MJ-1, 3.46 MJ ha-1 and 2626697.7 MJ ha-1, respectively. The benefit to cost ratio, net return and productivity from spearmint essential oil production are 1.53, 72.8537 $ ha-1 and 0.005 kg $-1, respectively.
- Keywords
- Spearmint Essential Oil; Golkaran Agro-Industrial Co; Energy Use Efficiency; Economic Analysis
- StartPage
- 11
- EndPage
- 17
- Doi
- 10.18005/JAEB0301002