(368e) Design of Carbon Neutral Industrial Clusters over a Time Horizon | AIChE

(368e) Design of Carbon Neutral Industrial Clusters over a Time Horizon

Authors 

Abraham, E. - Presenter, Texas A&M University at Qatar
Al-Mohannadi, D., Texas A&M University at Qatar
Linke, P., Texas A&M University at Qatar
Climate change concerns have led to a diverse range of efforts to ultimately mitigate the rising carbon dioxide emissions and reduce fossil fuel dependence. Advances taken in this direction comprise of different emission reduction pathways, which include improvement of process efficiency, adoption of carbon capture, utilization and storage systems, implementation of renewable energy options, and more recently, development of negative emission technologies and carbon neutral fuels. Policies are frequently coupled with these advances to bring about a systematic change towards sustainable development using carbon reduction targets. Industrial ecology and symbiosis are evolving sustainable concepts that aim to tackle emission footprints and resource conservation within the system of interest. Industrial networks, which adopt both industrial ecology and symbiosis, allow for the simultaneous incorporation of these cleaner reduction pathways to achieve carbon reduction targets and other economic, environmental, and social objectives. The fundamentals of process integration, circular economy, and economic diversification are integral to these networks. The concurrent integration of multiple resources to design these multi-objective networks considers overall balances, capital and operating costs, and resource prices. However, the operation of these networks varies with fluctuations over time, some of which have the potential to alter their design. Improvements in existing technologies, emerging technologies, network expansions, and changing market conditions, are some forms of these fluctuations that can cause variations over time. Furthermore, policies are designed to achieve a goal by a future date, making the development of planning strategies for their realization critical. To accommodate and plan for these variations, it is therefore essential to incorporate multi-period analysis into the network design. The approach introduced in this work allows develops a carbon neutral industrial network that considers fluctuations over time. A mixed-integer linear programming model will determine the optimal network configurations that can meet set objectives over multiple time periods through optimization. The multi-period model will also assess the network's economic and environmental benefits to allow stakeholders to evaluate and implement the designs. A case study will demonstrate the approach developed using a carbon reduction policy and assess the design obtained in terms of economic and environmental indicators.