Seasonal storages – way ahead for industrial decarbonisation?

Objective

Analyzing the impact of modeling seasonal storage in the energy systems by implementing new storage equations in the open source energy modeling tool OSeMOSYS.

Background

One of the most important challenge faced by the world today is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in order to curb the global rise in temperatures. The industrial sector produces a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions. According to an IPCC report, the share of emissions from the industries is over 30% of the total emission making the industrial sector a larger emitter than buildings and the transportation sector ref. There are two approaches/methods to industrial decarbonisation. The first approach eliminates the use of fossil fuels in the industries and replaces it with more sustainable fuels. For example, replacing coal with hydrogen generated from renewable energy would make it possible to largely decarbonize the steel industry. Secondly, recovered excess energy from industries can be used to replace fossil based energy in electricity/heating systems. Industries often generate excess heat and cold, which has previously been referred to as e.g. "waste" heat. There is a large potential to make use of this excess heat or cold to meet the heating and cooling demands and help offset the emissions. Since the industrial processes are continuous, the heat availability and the fuel demand is constant. However, the heat demand varies throughout the year and so does electricity generation from variable renewables. This creates a huge potential for storing energy over large periods. A seasonal storage could be used to achieve this. In this project, the student will work on areas related to seasonal storages such as seasonal thermal storage, hydrogen storage etc. to optimize the capacity for investing in these storage technologies and use them to decarbonize industries.

Learning outcomes:

• Assessment of different options for seasonal energy storage
• Evaluating technical and economic potentials for seasonal hydrogen/thermal energy storages
• Explore the functioning of seasonal storage and how to model these in an energy system optimization model
• Modelling seasonal storages and representing storage characteristics and functionalities as equations in a model

Deliverables/Outputs

This thesis project will analyze the current techno-economic potential for seasonal storages and determine the profitability of using such storages in a district heating system.

• Feasibility of seasonal storages through a literature study
• Adding equations in energy system modeling tool OSeMOSYS for seasonal storage technology
• Techno-economic analysis of using seasonal storages in district heating systems

Prerequisites

• Basic knowledge of Python and OSeMOSYS is an advantage.

Research Areas:

• Energy systems and innovation
• Open Tools for Systems Science

Duration

Duration: 6 Months, Start: Anytime

Supervision

Relevant links

1. www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:845680/FULLTEXT02.pdf
2. www.seenergies.eu/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2020/04/sEEnergies-WP5_D5.1-Excess_heat_potentials_of_industrial_sites_in_Europe.pdf
3. www.researchgate.net/publication/326235756_Excess_heat_recovery_An_invisible_energy_resource for_the_Swiss_industry_sector
4. core.ac.uk/download/pdf/191579918.pdf
5. www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/seasonal-thermal-energy-storage
6. www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2020/641552/EPRS_BRI(2020)641552_EN.pdf
7. www.fchea.org/in-transition/2019/11/25/hydrogen-in-the-iron-and-steel-industry
8. www.hybritdevelopment.se/forskningsprojekt-1/
9. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652619330550