Electro-fuel production process design in low-carbon energy systems

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Climate change is the defining challenge of this century and responding to it requires rapid and deep reductions in the emissions of carbon dioxide from the energy system. Studies differ on how to achieve these reductions, but there is consensus that the world needs both greater adoption of variable renewable energy and sustainable ways of producing low-carbon liquid and gaseous fuels for energy sectors that need them, such as industry and aviation. One way of achieving this is through integrating electro-fuel production processes into energy systems served primarily by low-carbon electricity sources. Recent research has focused on the chemical reactions that occurs in these electrolyzers and the materials that are required at the electrode-electrolyte interface, but sheds little light on the design choices and operational strategies that would optimize the performance of electro-fuel production technologies in an evolving energy system. The little existing research that does focus on components outside the electrode-electrolyte interface rarely employs high-fidelity process models. Moreover, it draws the analytical boundary around the plant, ignoring the effect of the power system on the optimal design and operational strategy that these systems should employ. Instead, plants are assumed to run at high load factors and optimal operating conditions to reduce the levelized cost of electro-fuel production. The objective of this research is to optimize design choices and operational strategies that would enable electro-fuel production processes to complement flexible energy systems. In doing so, the program will make fundamental contributions to our knowledge of system integration and fluid control in dynamic environments, focusing on the performance of innovations outside the electrode-electrolyte interface to improve performance, such as dynamic fluid control, multi-module deployment, and optimized heat integration with the balance of plant. The research will develop high-fidelity process models and integrate them into large-scale optimization models of the energy system to generate new knowledge about how process cycling will unfold in systems that simulate real-world conditions. In short, the program will develop, from first principles, optimal design choices and operating strategies for electro-fuel production processes to complement low-carbon energy systems. This program will contribute to achieving Canada's socio-economic and environmental goals and advance its leadership in the low-carbon energy transition. Although electro-fuel production is a promising candidate for deployment in a low-carbon energy transition, the knowledge generated by this research will also be applicable to other flexible energy system assets, many of which will need to engage in high levels of integration and dynamic control that this research will optimize.