# Does a closed loop biomass-fired cogeneration/CHP make sense?

I'm working on a project concerning electricity production using biomass, and we have seen that making use of cogeneration is very attractive in order to increase the efficiency of the installation. This would be a smallish power plant, of around $$1 \ \mathrm{MW}_e$$.

In particular, we are exploring an installation that is next to an industrial plant that needs both hot water and steam. Most of the designs I've seen for a steam turbine cogeneration power plants use an open loop, where part of the turbine exit steam is feed to the installation, and feedwater has to be added in order to replenish the system.

However, it seems to me that using a closed loop system would be very beneficial. In this case, we were thinking of having a steam-steam condenser that heats up the steam for the industrial plant (and condenses the process fluid) followed by a water-water heat exchanger that heats up the water for the industrial system. However, I'm not very well verse in heat exchangers. Does a design like this make sense?

We read about Organic Rankine Cycles, and it seems like a good solution in order to implement closed systems; however, if it is plausible, we prefer to use water/steam as the working fluid.