Remote Renewable Hubs for Carbon-Neutral Synthetic Fuel Production

Berger, Mathias; Radu, David-Constantin; Detienne, Ghislain; Deschuyteneer, Thierry; Richel, Aurore; Ernst, Damien

doi:10.3389/fenrg.2021.671279

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Remote Renewable Hubs for Carbon-Neutral Synthetic Fuel Production

Berger, Mathias; Radu, David-Constantin; Detienne, Ghislain et al.

2021 • In Frontiers in Energy Research

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https://hdl.handle.net/2268/250796

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10.3389/fenrg.2021.671279

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Keywords :

optimisation; renewable energy; carbon neutral; synthetic fuels; remote supply chain; linear programming; structured models; graph

Abstract :

[en] This paper studies the economics of carbon-neutral synthetic fuel production from renewable electricity in remote areas where high-quality renewable resources are abundant. To this end, a graph-based optimisation modelling framework directly applicable to the strategic planning of remote renewable energy supply chains is proposed. More precisely, a hypergraph abstraction of planning problems is introduced, wherein nodes can be viewed as optimisation subproblems with their own parameters, variables, constraints and local objective. Nodes typically represent a subsystem such as a technology, a plant or a process. Hyperedges, on the other hand, express the connectivity between subsystems. The framework is leveraged to study the economics of carbon-neutral synthetic methane production from solar and wind energy in North Africa and its delivery to Northwestern European markets. The full supply chain is modelled in an integrated fashion, which makes it possible to accurately capture the interaction between various technologies on an hourly time scale. Results suggest that the cost of synthetic methane production and delivery would be slightly under 150 €/MWh (higher heating value) by 2030 for a system supplying 10 TWh annually and relying on a combination of solar photovoltaic and wind power plants, assuming a uniform weighted average cost of capital of 7%. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis is also carried out in order to assess the impact of various techno-economic parameters and assumptions on synthetic methane cost, including the availability of wind power plants, the investment costs of electrolysis, methanation and direct air capture plants, their operational flexibility, the energy consumption of direct air capture plants, and financing costs. The most expensive configuration (around 200 €/MWh) relies on solar photovoltaic power plants alone, while the cheapest configuration (around 88 €/MWh) makes use of a combination of solar PV and wind power plants and is obtained when financing costs are set to zero.

Disciplines :

Energy

Author, co-author :

Berger, Mathias ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Dép. d'électric., électron. et informat. (Inst.Montefiore) > Smart grids

Radu, David-Constantin ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Dép. d'électric., électron. et informat. (Inst.Montefiore) > Smart grids

Detienne, Ghislain

Deschuyteneer, Thierry

Richel, Aurore ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département GxABT > SMARTECH

Ernst, Damien ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Dép. d'électric., électron. et informat. (Inst.Montefiore) > Smart grids

Language :

English

Title :

Remote Renewable Hubs for Carbon-Neutral Synthetic Fuel Production

Publication date :

June 2021

Journal title :

Frontiers in Energy Research

eISSN :

2296-598X

Publisher :

Frontiers Media S.A., Switzerland

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

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since 10 September 2020

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