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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Use of Systems Engineering in Repurposing Coal-Fired Power Plants with Malta Pumped Thermal Energy Storage System

he electric sector across North America is facing a transition. Both economics and policy decisions have pointed towards a broad retirement of fossil assets across markets. Owners are facing the problem of how to evolve the base of the electric sector from fossil asset to greener alternative. Coal-fired power plants built the modern electricity grid. Their rotating machinery are the beating heart of the grid, providing essential resiliency and reliability services. Power plant retirements are disruptive to plant workforces and cause outsized impacts on surrounding communities. The transition from thermal power plants that use rotating machinery to generate electricity (e.g., coal- and gas-fired plants) to variable, inverter-based generation (e.g., solar and wind) is affecting the reliability of the electric grid. Grid operators and national regulators have issued warnings about known and anticipated risk. In 2021, Malta Inc. was awarded a Department of Energy (DOE) grant to study how to integrate a Malta 100MW Pumped Heat Energy Storage (PHES) system with a retiring coal-fired power plant to meet emissions requirements, retain plant workforces, preserve communities, and maintain grid reliability. This presentation provides a summary of this study, focusing on how systems engineering approach was used to arrive at a proposed design concept that met multiple objectives and requirements. There will be three main parts for this presentation. The first part of the presentation will focus on how different systems engineering was applied for this work. In particular, the following areas: stakeholder engagement, site selection process, developing requirements and use cases for the integrated system, defining the system and its boundary, coming up with different system architecture/option, performing a techno-economic analysis to compare the different options and down selection of the preferred option, will be discusses. For these areas, discussion on the decisions on how much breadth and depth to go into each area will be provided. These discussions provide good insights into how to apply systems engineering. The second part of the presentation will provide a deeper dive into the two recommended integration options that repurpose coal-fired power plants with Malta PHES system. The comparison of the two options and general guidance of how to choose an option will be provided. This is particularly useful for utilities who are facing coal-plant retirements. The two options will be compared based on its performance (such as power output, efficiency), complexity, and cost. The social impact on local communities of the two options will also be discussed. The final part of the presentation will discuss the impact that this work has had, including Malta Inc. being invited to the White House to discuss progress and outcomes of this work with the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization. In summary, this presentation aims to provide a showcase of how sy

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2022

High CO2 Capture Rate Cost and Performance for F- and H-Class Natural Gas Combined Cycles (NGCC)

The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is updating its study titled “Cost and Performance Baselines for Fossil Energy Plants, Volume 1: Bituminous Coal and Natural Gas to Electricity.” Revision 4 was published in 2019. Pulverized coal (PC) and natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) cases with carbon capture in that study capture carbon dioxide (CO2) at 90% efficiency. Field-testing of post-combustion CO2 capture technology as well as vendor and industry feedback on projects currently in the planning stages (including FEED projects sponsored by DOE) indicate that capture rates as high as 95% are feasible for both coal- and natural gas-fueled electricity generating units. Technology suppliers (as reflected in vendor-supplied information provided to DOE for this study that included cost and performance estimates for both NGCC (97%) and PC (99%) study cases) as well as subject matter experts acknowledge and support that solvent-based post-combustion CO2 capture technologies are capable of achieving CO2 removal rates beyond 95% on low-purity streams representative of fossil-fueled combustion; however, the relatively limited experience with design and operation of capture systems that can routinely, reliably, and economically achieve very high removal rates (e.g., 97% for NGCC flue gas) requires further study. This presentation will address performance and cost estimates for 90%, 95%, and 97% capture for F- and H-class NGCC plants. This presentation was given at the 2022 Pittsburgh Coal Conference.

Fout, Timothy↗
DOE OSTI2022

TEA and LCA Assessments of H2 Production from Coal, Coal/Biomass, and Biomass

This presentation was made at the "Gasification Technology Status and Pathways for Net-Zero Carbon Economy Workshop" held on November 30, 2022. The presentation primarily focuses on TEA/LCA results that NETL has developed for coal gasification w/ & w/o CCS as well as net-zero greenhouse gas coal/biomass gasification. Full reporting of these cases is publicly available in the NETL report titled "Comparison of Commercial, State-of-the-Art, Fossil-Based Hydrogen Production Technologies," April 2022. Additionally, the presentation describes current NETL work in support of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) Gasification Program in the areas of TEA/LCA/Markets analysis of biomass/MSW/waste plastics gasification to achieve cost reductions for net-zero H2 production.

Lewis, Eric↗
DOE OSTI2017

LOWERING THE LEVELIZED COST OF ELECTRICITY OF A CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER TOWER WITH A SUPERCRITICAL CARBON DIOXIDE POWER CYCLE

In order to maintain viability as a future power-generating technology, concentrating solar power (CSP) must reduce its levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). The cost of CSP is assessed with the System Advisor Model (SAM) from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The performance of an integrally geared compressor-expander recuperated recompression cycle with supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) as the working fluid is modeled. A comparison of the cycle model to the integrated SAM cycle performance is made. The cycle model incorporates innovative cycle control methods to improve the range of efficiency, including inventory control. The SAM model is modified to accommodate the predicted cycle performance. The ultimate goal of minimizing the LCOE is targeted through multiple approaches, including the cost of the power block, the impact of system scale, the sizing of the thermal system relative to the power block system, the operating approach for changes in ambient temperature and availability of sunlight. Through reduced power block cost and a detailed cycle model, the LCOE is modeled to be 5.98 ¢/kWh, achieving targeted techno-economic performance. The LCOE of the CSP system is compared to the cost of hybrid solar and fossil-fired systems. An analysis is made on the efficacy of a fossil backup system with CSP and how that relates to potential future costs of carbon dioxide emissions

schmitt, josh↗
DOE OSTI2022

Decarbonization of the power sector with CCS: Case study in two regions in the U.S. and lessons for Latin America

This work consists of estimates of potential changes in the total systems cost (TSC) of two RTOs of the United States (U.S.), MISO-N and SPP RTO West, under the traditional decarbonization pathway of replacement of fossil-power plants with variable renewable energy (VRE) and the less traditional pathway of retrofitting fossil fuel units with carbon capture and storage (CCS). Although the power mixes of MISO-N and SPP RTO West are particular to these regions, results can apply to other regions, including Latin American countries that are planning to decarbonize their power sectors. This case study serves to highlight lessons on differences in technology costs between these two pathways, as well as the cost associated with decarbonization rates close to 100%.

Pena-Cabra, Ivonne A.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Building Environmental Justice and Equity into the Development of Critical Mineral Industries

The global transition toward low-carbon energy not only means an increase in demand for clean electricity and renewable resources, but also an increase in demand for the critical minerals (CMs) and rare earth elements (REEs) that these technologies rely upon. Indeed, low-carbon energy technologies, such as those used for wind turbines and electric vehicle motors, require significantly more lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, graphite, and other CMs than fossil-based energy technologies. The growing demand for new forms of low- carbon energy will necessitate a proportional scale-up of CM and REE extraction and processing. Presently, the majority of extraction and processing activities for CMs and REEs are concentrated in very few countries, primarily in China and the Global South. CM and REE supply chain activities conducted in or controlled by these countries are commonly associated with widespread and well- documented human rights abuses and environmental degradation. As a result of concerns related to supply chain security, worker welfare, and the overall need for additional sources of CMs and REEs, governments worldwide have begun to explore policy pathways for the development of new supply chains. The development of new supply chains for CMs and REEs re s a multifold opportunity to accelerate the global deployment of low-carbon energy fleets, reduce global carbon emissions, build political resilience—and also to enhance policy objectives of environmental justice and equity in the clean energy transition. Fulfilling these policy objectives requires energy producers to navigate a maze of global supply chain policies designed to shape and accelerate the growth of new markets. In the United States, for instance, President Biden recently implemented fiscal and trade policies that incentivize both domestic and global reliance on U.S.-produced CMs and REEs, leveraging key relationships in Asia and Europe to ensure the accelerated buildout of the U.S. supply chain. The Biden Administration’s framework also emphasizes that new supply chains for CMs, REEs, and other low-carbon energy pathways must generate benefits for marginalized and disadvantaged communities, build energy equity, and contribute to the Biden Administration’s vision of environmental justice. present CM and REE supply chains include several stages, including mining, processing, transport, utilization, and disposal, each of which involves different environmental justice considerations and potential injustices. This study explores how technical innovation, paired with responsible community engagement and empowerment, can help inform the development of energy equity and environmental justice at all stages of new supply chains. The study highlights these opportunities on a broad scale. We also lend a specific focus to research at the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources that aims to guide the development of CM and REE industries in communities with high economic dependence on coal and other fossil fuel industries, identifying pathways to grow a U.S. domestic supply chain by producing CMs from coal, coal by-products, and coal waste streams. These production pathways represent a potential new supply for CMs across the U.S. and elsewhere, thereby enhancing national security and accelerating the widespread deployment of low-carbon energy technologies, while also generating alternative applications for remaining coal reserves and aiding in a just transition for rural energy-producing communities.

Gerace, Selena↗
DOE OSTI2023

ES-FE Dataset Exploratory Tool Database Link

The Energy Storage - Fossil Energy (ES-FE) Dataset Explorer tool allows the user to take a deep dive into existing energy storage plant sites mapped to fossil generation sites. The tool also allows users to explore proposed energy storage sites. The explorer creates a dataset of all proposed and existing energy storage plant sites giving the user the ability to inspect various attributes of generation plants and storage plants, including but not limited to generating capacity, generating technology, and storage capacity.

Pena-Cabra, Ivonne A.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Decarbonization of the power sector with CCS: Case study in two regions in the U.S. and lessons for Latin America

This paper estimates potential changes in the total systems cost (TSC) of two RTOs of the United States (U.S.), MISO-N and SPP RTO West, under the traditional decarbonization pathway of replacement of fossil-power plants with variable renewable energy (VRE) and the less traditional pathway of retrofitting fossil fuel units with carbon capture and storage (CCS). Although the power mixes of MISO-N and SPP RTO West are particular to those regions, the results can apply to other regions, including Latin American countries that are planning to decarbonize their power sectors. This case study serves to highlight lessons on the difference of technology costs between these two pathways, as well as the cost associated with decarbonization rates close to 100%.

Pena-Cabra, Ivonne A.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Achieving Economy-wide Net-Zero Emissions: Is it an impossible goal?

Meeting growing energy demands while eliminating emissions, maintaining affordability, and ensuring energy justice is one of the most significant grand challenges of our time. Governments and private industry around the world have established aggressive goals to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century. In the U.S., this equates to a net-zero electricity sector by 2035 and across all energy use sectors—including electricity, industry, and transportation—by 2050. The key question then becomes: Can we get there from here? Meeting these aggressive goals demands immediate action, and they require us to think more holistically about our clean energy options. Currently, almost 85% of global energy demands are met by unabated fossil fuels. That means we have a lot of work to do, and we need to consider all of the non-emitting generation options available in each region—including fossil with carbon capture, renewables, and nuclear. And we need to reach our goal while establishing energy justice, which refers to the goal of achieving equity in social and economic participation in the energy system, while remediating past social, economic, and health burdens on communities that have been brought about by our energy system. This presentation will describe U.S. and global efforts focused on novel energy system solutions that strive to maximize use of all clean energy generation options to meet our energy demands, while ensuring sustainability, customer affordability, and a just energy system.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2013

Progress in Decommissioning the Humboldt Bay Power Plant - 13604

Decommissioning of the Pacific Gas and Electric (PG and E) Company Humboldt Bay Power Plant (HBPP) Unit 3 nuclear facility has now, after more than three decades of SAFSTOR and initial decommissioning work, transitioned to full-scale decommissioning. Decommissioning activities to date have been well orchestrated and executed in spite of an extremely small work site with space constricted even more by other concurrent on-site major construction projects including the demolition of four fossil units, construction of a new generating station and 60 KV switchyard upgrade. Full-scale decommissioning activities - now transitioning from Plant Systems Removal (PG and E self-perform) to Civil Works Projects (contractor performed) - are proceeding in a safe, timely, and cost effective manner. As a result of the successful decommissioning work to date (approximately fifty percent completed) and the intense planning and preparations for the remaining work, there is a high level of confidence for completion of all HBPP Unit 3 decommissions activities in 2018. Strategic planning and preparations to transition into full-scale decommissioning was carried out in 2008 by a small, highly focused project team. This planning was conducted concurrent with other critical planning requirements such as the loading of spent nuclear fuel into dry storage at the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) finishing December 2008. Over the past four years, 2009 through 2012, the majority of decommissioning work has been installation of site infrastructure and removal of systems and components, known as the Plant System Removal Phase, where work scope was dynamic with significant uncertainty, and it was self-performed by PG and E. As HBPP Decommissioning transitions from the Plant System Removal Phase to the Civil Works Projects Phase, where work scope is well defined, a contracting plan similar to that used for Fossil Decommissioning will be implemented. Award of five major work scopes in various stages of development are planned as they include: Turbine Building Demolition, Nuclear Facilities Demolition and Excavation, Intake and Discharge Canal Remediation, Office Facility Demobilization, and Final Site Restoration. Benefits realized by transitioning to the Civil Works Projects Phase with predominant firm fixed-price/fixed unit price contracting include single civil works contractor who can coordinate concrete shaving, liner removal, structural removal, and other demolition activities; streamline financial control; reduce PG and E overhead staffing; and provide a specialized Bidder Team with experience from other similar projects. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2016

'Top 10' Facility Decommissioning Risks and Mitigation Strategies to Prevent Them - 16487

Decommissioning represents a set of risks that differ from facility design and construction, operations, or maintenance. An informal poll was taken querying experienced facility decommissioning project and program managers in government and private business sectors about top decommissioning risks. The poll considered experience in nuclear, fossil fuel, and oil and gas projects in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. A classic risk assessment process was performed, where the likelihood and consequence(s) of impacts, typical or most commonly used controls, and the most effective mitigation strategies for various risks were identified. The risks that polled with the highest rankings were identified as the 'Top 10' decommissioning risks. Roger VanScoy stated 'Knowing our risks provides opportunities to manage and improve our chances of success.' The purpose of this effort was to identify and share the 'Top 10' decommissioning risks with those in the nuclear, fossil fuel, and oil and gas industry to help anticipate and manage those risks more effectively, avoid or reduce the potential consequences of the risks, and improve the chances of project success. Douglas Adams said: 'Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so'. The information provided shares experiences, knowledge, and effective mitigation strategies from those with successful decommissioning experience so that others can learn and avoid the adverse consequences of risks inherent with decommissioning projects. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2016

Implications of Zero-Carbon Nuclear Renewable Economy: Equity, Economics, and Social Costs

Different energy systems have different impacts on equity, economics, and social costs of energy. This leads to alternative strategies for a zero-carbon economy from considering all options to a renewables-only strategy. We examine implications of different choices from a long-term perspective. This is coupled to but separate from the discussion of how to transition to a low-carbon energy system. If we are to stop greenhouse gas emissions with current goals, the transition must be fast. That requires a large nuclear contribution. Experiences in France and Sweden indicate that one can transition the electric grid from fossil fuels to nuclear in 20 to 25 years if it is a priority. Neither renewables with associated storage and transmission nor carbon capture and sequestration for fossil fuel use in electricity generation are available today at competitive costs to do that. The cost of energy has historically been a major factor in determining where industry and cities are built because it is a large fraction of the global economy. The development of low-cost methods to transport coal, oil, and natural gas partly broke that connection by enabling relatively uniform global energy costs. Nuclear energy because of the low-cost of fuel transport has the same characteristic. Renewables are location dependent. In a renewables-only future, the renewable resources distribution determines local energy costs that directly impacts where there is future economic growth and where there will be lower costs of living. In the U.S. today solar is generally uneconomic. Some Great Plains wind is competitive. Offshore wind is uneconomic. Based on projections of renewables costs, an all-renewable U.S. would see (1) movement of industry and people to between the Mississippi River (water and transportation) and the high plains (high wind velocities and low construction costs) and the southwest and (2) growing regional differences in standards of living. The costs of moving energy from renewables long distances is partly because of the high cost of transport systems (high-voltage lines with low capacity factors, hydrogen inter-conversion losses, etc.) and partly because of the non-dispatchability of renewables. A nuclear renewable world will have large variations in the relative amounts of nuclear, wind and solar with location-reflecting local cost of renewable resources. The deployment of wind and solar would be similar to hydro and geothermal-deployed where there is a concentrated resource. In the U.S. and globally this will likely be the norm because countries with limited access to low-cost renewables will not accept lower standards of living. The relative quantities of nuclear, wind and solar will change with relative advances in energy technologies. Energy is a large fraction of the economy; thus, energy choices have major economic, equity, and social implications. That, in turn, impacts standards of living and economic competitiveness. (authors)

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2016

AREVA Steam Cycle High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor Development and Deployment Plan - 18684

The development and deployment timeline for the AREVA SC-HTGR is among the shortest of all Generation IV reactor technologies. Once demonstrated, the SC-HTGR enters an expanding marketplace beyond electricity generation. This enables industrial growth that is today solely captive to fossil fuels, primarily natural gas supply. The SC-HTGR plant will be a hedge that insulates a wide range of process industries from fossil fuel price and supply volatility in coming decades when the SC-HTGR plant design is ready for deployment. Similar to existing light water reactors, the SC-HTGR is largely immune to fuel price swings for its expected 60 year operating life cycle. Approximately 70% of the SCHTGR plant energy cost is driven by the initial capital investment with fuel being less than 20%. This is entirely the opposite of natural gas fueled power plants where about 70% of the energy cost is directly tied to the cost and availability of fuel and the potential volatility this brings with it over a plant life cycle that could span several decades. This paper details the development and deployment strategy envisioned by AREVA for the SC-HTGR plant. The development phase includes completion of the full scale reactor module design and licensing, build and demonstrate the first commercial scale module, get design certification, and launch the commercial fleet deployment. The development plan takes full advantage of a) a large body of successful pre-application licensing interactions with the NRC under the DOE NGNP project, b) ongoing experiments and test results accumulated through the TRISO particle fuel qualification and nuclear grade graphite characterization R and D activities conducted in the U.S. and internationally, and c) operation of several small scale technology demonstration facilities and large scale commercial design projects. The abundance of the historic HTGR reactor technology demonstration projects provides a high degree of confidence that sufficient technical information is available to begin FOAK plant engineering and licensing followed by commercial demonstration of the first reactor module within a next decade. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Development Strategy for Gas Turbines with Firebrick Resistance-Heated Energy Storage to Enable Nuclear-Renewable Grid Integration

The world is transitioning to a low-carbon energy system. Variable electricity and industrial energy demands have been met with storable fossil fuels-systems with low-capital costs and high-operating costs. In contrast, the low-carbon energy sources (nuclear, wind and solar) are characterized by high-capital-costs and low-operating costs. High utilization is required to produce economic energy. The addition of large quantities of wind or solar changes the market. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Future of Solar Energy study examined the solar option and the challenge of moving from an electricity grid dominated by fossil fuel generation to a grid with significant solar capacity. As more solar plants are built, electricity prices at times of high solar output collapse; thus, solar revenue collapses as solar production increases. This limits unsubsidized solar capacity to a relatively small fraction of total electricity production even if there are large decreases in solar capital costs. The same occurs with the large-scale use of wind. This results in increasing number of hours of near-zero wholesale prices for electricity that has been seen in multiple electricity markets in Europe and the United States. This is bad economic news for nuclear, wind and solar for revenue collapse limits the use of low-carbon technologies. It favors lower-capital-cost higher-operating-cost natural gas plants with their capability to cycle up and down quickly. New technologies are required to store or use this electricity at times of low prices to produce electricity at times of high prices. The use of gas-turbines with Firebrick Resistance-Heated Energy Storage (FIRES) is proposed herein to address this challenge as part of a broader strategy to develop nuclear power systems with three goals: (1) compete with natural gas, (2) prosper with subsidized wind and solar and (3) enable a low-cost low-carbon nuclear-renewable energy system.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Heat Storage for Peak Power with Base-Load Rankine-Cycle LWRs nd Brayton-Cycle High-Temperature Reactors

The world is transitioning to a low-carbon energy system. Variable electricity and industrial energy demands have been met with storable fossil fuels-systems with low-capital costs and high-operating costs. In contrast, the low-carbon energy sources (nuclear, wind and solar) are characterized by high-capital-costs and low-operating costs. High utilization is required to produce economic energy. The addition of large quantities of wind or solar changes the market. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Future of Solar Energy study provides an examination of the solar option and the challenge of moving from an electricity grid dominated by fossil fuel generation to a grid with significant solar capacity. As more solar plants are built, electricity prices at times of high solar output collapse; thus, solar revenue collapses as solar production increases. This limits unsubsidized solar capacity to a relatively small fraction of total electricity production even if there are large decreases in solar capital costs. The same occurs with the large-scale use of wind. This results in increasing number of hours of near-zero wholesale prices for electricity that has been seen in multiple electricity markets in Europe and the United States. This is bad economic news for nuclear, wind and solar for revenue collapse limits the use of low-carbon technologies. It favors lower-capital-cost higher-operating- cost natural gas plants with their capability to cycle up and down quickly. New technologies are required to store or use this electricity at times of low prices to produce electricity at times of high prices. We describe two strategies to improve nuclear power economics based on heat storage. Heat storage is less expensive than electricity storage. The reactor operates at full capacity all the time but the electricity to the grid varies with time depending upon electricity prices. Each option allows sending heat to industry.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Life-Cycle Assessment Integration into Scalable Open-Source Numerical Models (LiAISON) for Prospective Impact Analysis of Novel Technologies

Decarbonizing the industrial sector is a significant challenge in achieving a net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions economy by 2050 and the Paris Agreement, i.e., a global climate change mitigation target of achieving a maximum average temperature change potential of 1.5 Degrees Celsius or less by 2100 with respect to pre-industrial levels. In the United States (US), the industrial sector accounts for 23% of total GHG emissions and is home to a number of hard-to-electrify activities. The chemicals subsector has the single largest subsector emissions profile after direct emissions from fossil fuel combustion and leakage from fossil fuel distribution systems. Within the chemicals subsector, many processes depend on hydrogen or ammonia precursors. Decarbonizing these two commodities would contribute significantly to decarbonizing the industrial sector as hydrogen could also be used for low carbon steel production (e.g., hydrogen-based direct reduction of iron) and other industrial applications. Emerging technologies require the application of prospective life cycle assessment (LCA), which can account for technology (foreground) scaling and process improvements via learning-by-doing, among others. In many cases, the future system context (background) in which the technologies are assumed to operate in is equally relevant. Background scenarios generated by integrated assessment models (IAM) can coherently incorporate potential future dynamics of the energy-climate-human-land system. Further, IAM scenarios are harmonized across socioeconomic and climate change mitigation pathways, which facilitates the comparability of prospective LCAs using different IAMs. We introduce an open source prospective LCA framework, the Life-cycle Assessment Integration into Scalable Open-source Numerical models (LiAISON), to analyze the non-linear relationships between technology foreground and the future energy system background across a series of midpoint and resource use metrics. The integration of LCA and IAM data is achieved using prospective environmental Impact assessment (PREMISE). We showcase it by assessing two Power-to-Hydrogen (PtH2) processes, namely Solid Oxide Electrolysis (SOE) and Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Electrolysis (PEME). We compare the technologies to a baseline of hydrogen production via natural gas-based Steam Methane Reforming (SMR) in a US context of multiple energy system and climate change mitigation futures. Besides providing an analysis that specifies the LCA results ranges with temporal and geospatial explicitness across the two technologies, metrics, and impact assessment methods, this research also aims to establish a base framework that can be expanded to use other IAM generated scenarios and US open-source life cycle inventory (LCI) databases. We find that the temporal environmental performance of either technology or their difference to SMR is directly influenced by the underlying background dynamics. Additionally we compare our results by linking two other prospective models with LiAISON - GCAM (Global Change Assessment Model) and ReEDS (Regional Energy Deployment System) to analyze the effect of changing background scenarios using varying predictions in life cycle analysis.

decarbonizing↗
DOE OSTI2024

Life-Cycle Assessment Integration into Scalable Open-Source Numerical Models (LiAISON) for Analyzing Emerging Low-Carbon Technologies

Decarbonizing the industrial sector is a significant challenge in achieving a net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions economy by 2050 and the Paris Agreement, i.e., a global climate change mitigation target of achieving a maximum average temperature change potential of 1.5 degrees Celsius or less by 2100 with respect to pre-industrial levels. In the United States (US), the industrial sector accounts for 23% of total GHG emissions and is home to a number of hard-to-electrify activities. The chemicals subsector has the single largest subsector emissions profile after direct emissions from fossil fuel combustion and leakage from fossil fuel distribution systems. Within the chemicals subsector, many processes depend on hydrogen or ammonia precursors. Decarbonizing these two commodities would contribute significantly to decarbonizing the industrial sector as hydrogen could also be used for low carbon steel production (e.g., hydrogen-based direct reduction of iron) and other industrial applications. Emerging technologies require the application of prospective life cycle assessment (LCA), which can account for technology (foreground) scaling and process improvements via learning-by-doing, among others. In many cases, the future system context (background) in which the technologies are assumed to operate in is equally relevant. Background scenarios generated by integrated assessment models (IAM) can coherently incorporate potential future dynamics of the energy-climate-human-land system. Further, IAM scenarios are harmonized across socioeconomic and climate change mitigation pathways, which facilitates the comparability of prospective LCAs using different IAMs. We introduce an open source prospective LCA framework, the Life-cycle Assessment Integration into Scalable Open-source Numerical models (LiAISON), to analyze the non-linear relationships between technology foreground and the future energy system background across a series of midpoint and resource use metrics. The integration of LCA and IAM data is achieved using prospective environmental Impact assessment (PREMISE). We showcase it by assessing two Power-to-Hydrogen (PtH2) processes, namely Solid Oxide Electrolysis (SOE) and Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Electrolysis (PEME). We compare the technologies to a baseline of hydrogen production via natural gas-based Steam Methane Reforming (SMR) in a US context of multiple energy system and climate change mitigation futures. Besides providing an analysis that specifies the LCA results ranges with temporal and geospatial explicitness across the two technologies, metrics, and impact assessment methods, this research also aims to establish a base framework that can be expanded to use other IAM generated scenarios and US open-source life cycle inventory (LCI) databases. We find that the temporal environmental performance of either technology or their difference to SMR is directly influenced by the underlying background dynamics. Under baseline projections (i.e., no decarbonization goals), neither process reaches parity with the incumbent technology across several environmental metrics. Under the decarbonization scenarios, the underlying sectoral shifts result in declining impacts over time, compared to 2020 levels, except for metal depletion levels, which increase. The background shifts postulate a heavily decarbonized economy and energy system, which help technologies reach parity with SMR between 2040-2050 (RCP2.6) and 2030-2040 (RCP1.9) for global warming. Despite declines across several other metrics over time, neither PtH2 technology break even with SMR by 2100 besides for global warming.

decarbonizing↗
DOE OSTI2024

To What Extent Will Decarbonization Deepen the Conversation Between Industry and the Grid?

Decarbonization - the transition away from un-mitigated fossil fuel combustion throughout the economy - requires big changes from both power and process systems. On the power system side, those changes are expected to include large increases in variable generation, e.g., from wind and solar, which has near-zero marginal costs and at large shares can produce infrequent but consequential energy droughts. On the process systems side, industries are investigating their options for direct and indirect electrification, the latter exemplified by replacing fossil fuel inputs with zero-carbon, energy-carrying chemicals like hydrogen and ammonia produced via electrochemical processes. The economic features of these changes within the larger context of power and process systems suggest that their realization could be accompanied by a paradigm shift in how industrial facilities interact with the grid. For example, the dominant type of demand participation in power markets could change from today's focus on load reductions at peak times to a new focus on shifting electricity use, enabled in part by large-scale product storage, to take advantage of renewable energy that would otherwise be curtailed and to avoid consumption during high-price energy droughts. This talk will describe these and other possible design and operational approaches from grid and industrial economic perspectives, culminating in an enumeration of open problems that lie at the interface of today and tomorrow's power and process systems.

co-design↗