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

气候变化是本世纪的决定性挑战，应对这一挑战需要迅速和大幅减少能源系统的二氧化碳排放。关于如何实现这些减排的研究存在分歧，但人们一致认为，世界需要更多地采用可变的可再生能源，并以可持续的方式生产低碳液体和气体燃料，以满足工业和航空等能源部门的需求。实现这一目标的方法之一是将电燃料生产过程整合到主要由低碳电力来源提供服务的能源系统中。最近的研究主要集中在这些电解槽中发生的化学反应和电极-电解质界面所需的材料上，但在不断发展的能源系统中优化电燃料生产技术性能的设计选择和操作策略上却很少有研究。现有的研究很少关注电极-电解质界面外的组件，很少采用高保真的过程模型。此外，它绘制了围绕电厂的分析边界，忽略了电力系统对这些系统应采用的优化设计和运行策略的影响。相反，发电厂被假设在高负荷因素和最佳运行条件下运行，以降低电燃料生产的平均成本。本研究的目的是优化设计选择和操作策略，使电燃料生产过程能够补充灵活的能源系统。在此过程中，该计划将为我们在动态环境中的系统集成和流体控制方面的知识做出根本性贡献，重点关注电极-电解质界面之外的创新性能，以提高性能，例如动态流体控制，多模块部署和优化的热集成与工厂的平衡。该研究将开发高保真过程模型，并将其集成到能源系统的大规模优化模型中，以产生关于过程循环如何在模拟现实世界条件的系统中展开的新知识。简而言之，该项目将从最初的原则出发，为电燃料生产过程制定最佳设计选择和运营策略，以补充低碳能源系统。该项目将有助于实现加拿大的社会经济和环境目标，并促进其在低碳能源转型中的领导地位。虽然电燃料生产在低碳能源转型中是一个很有前途的选择，但本研究产生的知识也将适用于其他灵活的能源系统资产，其中许多需要参与高水平的集成和动态控制，本研究将优化这些资产。

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.