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Background
This project will develop an open source techno-economic and environmental portfolio assessment toolkit to design low carbon infrastructure for industrial clusters. It will address two important cluster challenges:
i. How to share the cost of new or modified infrastructure (e.g. CCS, hydrogen production and distribution, increased electrification)
ii. Identify and rate opportunities for resource cascading (e.g. heat integration across industries).
Prof Nilay Shah
Principal Investigator
Department of Chemical Engineering
Project Team
Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London:
Prof Anna Korre
Dr Zhenggang Nie
Dr Naveed Tariq
Ms. Shyamaladevi Sivakumar
Research Centre for Carbon Solutions, Heriot-Watt University:
Associate Prof Mijndert Van der Spek
Till Strunge
Ms. Arezoo Azimi
Aim
Building on our experience of process and system level modelling, as well as life cycle analysis, will identify systems infrastructure, asset and network design options that work at cluster level. Issues such as the right balance of electricity, CCS, hydrogen and heat cascading for a particular cluster will be explored, quantifying the solutions with a range of energetic, economic and environmental metrics. The work will comprise four key academic tasks:
- Framework development;
- Model and tool development;
- Cluster case studies analysis and model refinement;
- Model finalisation.
Industrially, the objective is to engage at least two clusters in case studies and results evaluation and use the toolkit to support them in their roadmap development. Technology developers will be able to use the toolkit to gain insights into the potential roles for their technologies for industrial decarbonisation
More Detail
Input parameters:
- Geographic allocations of the existing industrial assets and options for their decarbonisation (e.g. new technology, fuel switching, CCS)
- Location and capacity of carbon sinks
- Potential locations of supporting technologies (e.g.H2 production)
- Availability of other energy supplies (e.g. electricity, biofuels)
- Decarbonisation targets Investment and operational decisions
Investment and operational decisions:
- Binary variables to determine which interventions take place in each asset
- Binary variables defining investment in new energy supply technologies
- Binary variables for investment in new infrastructure
- Continuous variables for process operations and flows(H2,CO2,electricity,…) through networks.
Scope: considered industries and technologies:
The optimisation model contains (a) an accurate representation of the industrial processes and mapping of options for modification (portfolio, e.g., fuel switch or carbon capture, or other), (b) spatial configuration and representation of the temporal evolution of the system, (c) representation of the wider hinterland and possible interactions (e.g.access to CO2 transport backbones), and(d) key performance indicators that reflect a range of parameters addressing the techno-economic performance for individual companies as well as for the total cluster, regional economic benefits, and environmental impacts. Following this framework, the toolkit is able to optimise for alternative cluster-level system designs. It explores the role of different technologies and interventions and evaluates the effects of different business models that regional and central governments may wish to employ to achieve net-zero clusters.
In a first development round, the model focuses on UK’s major carbon dioxide emitting industry sectors. These include:
- Refineries
- Iron & Steelmills
- Cement and Lime
- Powerplants
- Chemicals
The toolkit incorporates models, i.e.component models, to describe the baseline processes within these industries, as well as intervened process. Such interventions entail various technological alteration like carbon capture technologies, fuel switch to hydrogen or ammonia, or alternative process layout or integration with other industries. Each process modification is described in a separate process simulation model.
Meet the Team
Team 1
Prof Anna Korre
Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London
Team 1
Associate Prof Mijndert Van der Spek
Research Centre for Carbon Solutions, Heriot-Watt University
Team 1
Till Strunge
Research Centre for Carbon Solutions, Heriot-Watt University
Team 1
Ms. Arezoo Azimi
Research Centre for Carbon Solutions, Heriot-Watt University
Team 1
Dr Zhenggang Nie
Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London
Team 1
Dr Naveed Tariq
Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London
Team 1
Ms. Shyamaladevi Sivakumar
Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London
Team 1
Prof Anna Korre
Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London
Team 1
Associate Prof Mijndert Van der Spek
Research Centre for Carbon Solutions, Heriot-Watt University
Team 1
Dr Lukas Kung
Research Centre for Carbon Solutions, Heriot-Watt University
Team 1
Till Strunge
Research Centre for Carbon Solutions, Heriot-Watt University
Team 1
Ms. Arezoo Azimi
Research Centre for Carbon Solutions, Heriot-Watt University
Team 1
Dr Zhenggang Nie
Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London
Team 1
Dr Naveed Tariq
Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London
Team 1
Ms. Shyamaladevi Sivakumar
Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London
Case Study / Progress
The toolkit is developed and tested with the engagement of two industrial clusters: the Scottish and the South Wales clusters. Both clusters have unique characteristics, cover a wide array of industrial processes and are not currently funded (in the first wave) by BEIS. The Scottish cluster is centred around the Grangemouth refinery with its surrounding chemical processes (including Mossmoran sites). The Feeder 10 pipeline connects those sites to St.Fergus, from where the CO2 can be injected into the Miller oilfield. In contrast, the South Wales cluster does not have direct access to a CO2 sink, which requires CO2 transport by ships. Given that dependency on sea routes, the Pembroke refinery and adjacent regasification terminal are attractive to consider a blue hydrogen infrastructure to supply the wider hinterland.
Planned Outputs
- Open source open access toolkit for cluster decarbonisation
- Toolkit training sessions for clusters
- Decarbonisation case studies for the Scotland and South Wales clusters
