Authors: Royapoor, Mohammad; Allahham, Adib; Hosseini, Seyed Hamid Reza; Rufa’I, Nabila Ahmed; Walker, Sara Louise
Abstract: One of the most challenging sectors to meet “Net Zero emissions” target by 2050 in the UK is the domestic heating sector. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review of the main challenges of heating systems transition to low carbon technologies in which three distinct categories of challenges are discussed. The first challenge is of decarbonizing heat at the supply side, considering specifically the difficulties in integrating hydrogen as a low-carbon heating substitute to the dominant natural gas. The next challenge is of decarbonizing heat at the demand side, and research into the difficulties of retrofitting the existing UK housing stock, of digitalizing heating energy systems, as well as ensuring both retrofits and digitalization do not disproportionately affect vulnerable groups in society. The need for demonstrating innovative solutions to these challenges leads to the final focus, which is the challenge of modeling and demonstrating future energy systems heating scenarios. This work concludes with recommendations for the energy research community and policy makers to tackle urgent challenges facing the decarbonization of the UK heating sector.
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URL: https://research.birmingham.ac.uk/files/218768520/Towards_2050_net_zero_carbon_infrastructure_a_critical_review_of_key_decarbonization_challenges_in_the_domestic_heating_sector_in_the_UK.pdf
Authors: Hossein Ameli, Goran Strbac, Danny Pudjianto, Mohammad Taghi Ameli
Abstract: Hydrogen is an emerging technology changing the context of heating with cleaner combustion than traditional fossil fuels. Studies indicate the potential to repurpose the existing natural gas infrastructure, offering consumers a sustainable, economically viable option in the future. The integration of hydrogen in combined heat and power systems could provide residential energy demand and reduce environmental emissions. However, the widespread adoption of hydrogen will face several challenges, such as carbon dioxide emissions from the current production methods and the need for infrastructure modification for transport and safety. Researchers indicated the viability of hydrogen in decarbonizing heat, while some studies also challenged its long-term role in the future of heating. In this paper, a comprehensive literature review is carried out by identifying the following key aspects, which could impact the conclusion on the overall role of hydrogen in heat decarbonization: (i) a holistic view of the energy system, considering factors such as renewable integration and system balancing; (ii) consumer-oriented approaches often overlook the broader benefits of hydrogen in emission reduction and grid stability; (iii) carbon capture and storage scalability is a key factor for large-scale production of low-emission blue hydrogen; (iv) technological improvements could increase the cost-effectiveness of hydrogen; (v) the role of hydrogen in enhancing resilience, especially during extreme weather conditions, raises the potential of hydrogen as a flexible asset in the energy infrastructure for future energy supply; and finally, when considering the UK as a basis case, (vi) incorporating factors such as the extensive gas network and unique climate conditions, necessitates specific strategies.
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Authors: Mohammad Mehdi Amiri, Mohammad Taghi Ameli, Mohammad Reza Aghamohammadi, Erfan Bashooki, Hossein Ameli, Goran Strbac
Abstract: Energy hubs (EHs) enable all types of energy customers to participate in demand response programs (DRPs), such as inelastic loads, by combining electricity, heat, natural gas, and other types of energy. Integrated demand response (IDR) is the result of this new vision. From a global warming perspective, environmental emissions are a significant issue to be considered. Furthermore, hydrogen has been recognized as an attractive fuel for decarbonizing sectors that contribute to global warming. Thus, this paper provides a solution to global environmental problems through the utilization of renewable energy sources (RESs) and green hydrogen. In addition, electric vehicles (EVs) are expected to contribute significantly to this scenario due to their rapid expansion. Considering the uncertainty of electricity prices, this paper focuses on coordinating EV parking with hydrogen storage systems (HSS) and IDR with the aim of increasing flexibility, where a robust optimization (RO) method has been implemented to solve the problem. The results demonstrate that in the case of a deterministic solution to the problem and where uncertainty is at
the highest level, the proposed scheme reduces the total operating costs by 13.89% and 8.67%, respectively. This indicates that the proposed scheme could avoid overinvestment and cost-effectively achieve the given
carbon emission target.
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Authors: Khalid Alanazi, Shivika Mittal, Adam Hawkes, Nilay Shah
Abstract: Hydrogen has gained significant attention as a possibly important energy vector in the pursuit of climate change mitigation objectives. Global demand for renewable hydrogen is anticipated to increase across many decarbonization scenarios. To meet this demand, many countries have unveiled strategies aimed at bolstering domestic low-carbon hydrogen production or facilitating imports. Within this context, international trade has emerged as a means of importing hydrogen from regions with low-cost production capabilities. However, investment decisions in the development of international hydrogen markets are moving slowly due to large uncertainties regarding the magnitude of future demand and willingness to pay for hydrogen in key end- use applications.
In this study, we develop a novel modelling framework capable of simulating global hydrogen market equilibrium and international trade scenarios in the long-term future. Our methodology includes the development of supply and demand curves, as well as a global hydrogen trade model that takes into account various supply chain options. Using this framework, we are able to derive quantitative insights into equilibrium supply and demand, pricing dynamics, trade flows, costs, and many more. We apply this framework to investigate the optimal development of hydrogen markets in 2050 under a 1.5°C climate change mitigations scenario. Our findings indicate that new hydrogen sectors could see a global demand surge to 195.2 Mt, with international trade constituting a quarter of this demand.
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Authors: Danny Pudjianto, Hossein Ameli, Goran Strbac
Abstract: The lack of clarity and uncertainty about hydrogen’s roles, demand, applications, and economics has hindered hydrogen development. This paper presents an integrated whole energy system (IWES) model to optimise the planning and operation of an energy system; the model is used to identify the role of hydrogen technologies in decarbonising energy systems, improving system flexibility and enhancing energy system security and resilience against extreme weather. The studies were conducted on the future (year 2050) Great Britain’s energy system to understand the hydrogen infrastructure capacity needed and their utilisation from the production, transport, storage, and demand under different scenarios. In the models, hydrogen technologies will compete against other alternative technologies, and the optimisation models will determine the least-cost solution. The studies demonstrate that hydrogen is essential for providing flexibility, energy system security and resilience against extreme weather. Synergy across hydrogen assets reduces the cost of hydrogen heating, which can be cost-competitive against the heat electrification approach.
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Smart Local Energy Systems: Optimal Planning of Stand-Alone Hybrid Green Power Systems for On-line Charging of Electric Vehicles
Authors: Hani Gharavi Ahangar, Weng Kean Yew, David Flynn
Abstract: Multi-vector smart local energy systems are playing an increasingly importantly role in the fast-track decarbonisation of our global energy services. An emergent contributor to global decarbonisation is green hydrogen. Green hydrogen can remove or reduce the burden of electrification of heat and transport on energy networks and provide a sustainable energy resource. In this paper, we explore how to optimally design a standalone hybrid green power system (HGPS) to supply a specific load demand with on-line charging of Electric Vehicles (EV). The HGPS includes wind turbine (WT) units, photovoltaic (PV) arrays, electrolyser and fuel cell (FC). For reliability analysis, it is assumed that WT, PV, DC/AC converter, and EV charger can also be sources of potential failure. Our methodology utilises a particle swarm optimization, coupled with a range of energy scenarios as to fully evaluate the varying interdependences and importance of economic and reliability indices, for the standalone HGPS. Our analysis indicates that EV charging with peak loading can have significant impact on the HGPS, resulting in significant reductions in the reliability indices of the HGPS, therefore enhance the operation of HGPS and reduces the overall cost. Our analysis demonstrates the importance of understanding local demand within a multi-vector optimization framework, as to ensure viable and resilient energy services.
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Life cycle assessment of waste-to-hydrogen systems for fuel cell electric buses in Glasgow, Scotland
Authors: Jade Lui, William Sloan, Manosh C. Paul, David Flynn, Siming You
Date: September 2022
Abstract: Waste-to-hydrogen (WtH) technologies are proposed as a dual-purpose method for simultaneous non-fossil-fuel based hydrogen production and sustainable waste management. This work applied the life cycle assessment approach to evaluate the carbon saving potential of two main WtH technologies (gasification and fermentation) in comparison to the conventional hydrogen production method of steam methane reforming (SMR) powering fuel cell electric buses in Glasgow. It was shown that WtH technologies could reduce CO2-eq emissions per kg H2 by 50–69% as compared to SMR. Gasification treating municipal solid waste and waste wood had global warming potentials of 4.99 and 4.11 kg CO2-eq/kg H2 respectively, which were lower than dark fermentation treating wet waste at 6.6 kg CO2-eq/kg H2 and combined dark and photo fermentation at 6.4 kg CO2-eq/kg H2. The distance emissions of WtH-based fuel cell electric bus scenarios were 0.33–0.44 kg CO2-eq/km as compared to 0.89 kg CO2-eq/km for the SMR-based scenario.
Full paper available here or by following URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960852422007933