IDRIC MIP 2.1
Summary
Building on our experience of process and system level modelling, as well as life cycle analysis, will identify systems infrastructure, asset and network design options that work at cluster level. Issues such as the right balance of electricity, CCS, hydrogen and heat cascading for a particular cluster will be explored, quantifying the solutions with a range of energetic, economic and environmental metrics. The work will comprise four key academic tasks:
Framework development;
Model and tool development;
Cluster case studies analysis and model refinement;
Model finalisation.
Industrially, the objective is to engage at least two clusters in case studies and results evaluation and use the toolkit to support them in their roadmap development. Technology developers will be able to use the toolkit to gain insights into the potential roles for their technologies for industrial decarbonisation.
Description
The optimisation model contains (a) an accurate representation of the industrial processes and mapping of options for modification (portfolio, e.g., fuel switch or carbon capture, or other), (b) spatial configuration and representation of the temporal evolution of the system, (c) representation of the wider hinterland and possible interactions (e.g. access to CO2 transport backbones), and(d) key performance indicators that reflect a range of parameters addressing the techno-economic performance for individual companies as well as for the total cluster, regional economic benefits, and environmental impacts. Following this framework, the toolkit is able to optimise for alternative cluster-level system designs. It explores the role of different technologies and interventions and evaluates the effects of different business models that regional and central governments may wish to employ to achieve net-zero clusters.
In a first development round, the model focuses on UK’s major carbon dioxide emitting industry sectors. These include:
Refineries
Iron & Steel mills
Cement and Lime
Powerplants
Chemicals
The toolkit incorporates models, i.e. component models, to describe the baseline processes within these industries, as well as intervened process. Such interventions entail various technological alteration like carbon capture technologies, fuel switch to hydrogen or ammonia, or alternative process layout or integration with other industries. Each process modification is described in a separate process simulation model.
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