**5. Conclusions**

The primary goal of biomass utilization is to reduce production costs and carbon dioxide emission. The ecological benefit of husk (as biofuel) is that it is a carbon neutral source of energy. CHP plants ensure the most ecological e ffect.

The increase of mill capacity results in the decrease of specific energy consumption and heat/electricity consumption ratio. To reduce production costs and carbon dioxide emission, Ukrainian mills utilize sunflower seed husk (primarily to cover requirement in heat). Its consumption ranges from 46% to 57.8% of total husk production.

Heat to electricity consumed ratio of oil mills does not coincide with heat to electricity generated ratio of CHP plants. Therefore, di fferent modes of CHP have been analyzed. The preferable mode is the design of CHP plants to cover heat demand of an oil mill. This option may increase total income by 24.7–65.7% and cut carbon dioxide emission by 201–366%. Either way, excess electricity is sent to the grid. In addition, the remaining husk may be used for pellet or green electricity production.

Energy content of husk exceeds energy demand of any edible oil plant. Husk utilization allows the plants to reduce carbon dioxide emission, kg per ton of oil produced: Heat generation—142; power generation—174; combined power and heat generation—274.

Gasification based husk CHP provides higher electricity e fficiency, gross income, and carbon dioxide emission. However, this technology is not mature enough.

At further work, impact of annual operating hours and investment costs on economical indicators are expected to be studied.

**Author Contributions:** Formal analysis, methodology, V.H. and A.K.; Investigation, G.M., U.M., and D.G.V.; Writing—original draft, V.H. and A.K.; Writing—review and editing, V.H., A.K., G.M., U.M., and D.G.V. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
