Design of low-carbon multi-energy systems in the SecMOD framework by combining MILP optimization and life-cycle assessment
Christiane Reinert, Niklas Nolzen, Julia Frohmann, Dominik Tillmanns, André Bardow
Abstract
Decarbonizing complex industrial energy systems is an important step to mitigate climate change. Designing the transition of such sector-coupled industrial energy systems to low-carbon designs is challenging since both cost-efficient operation and the reduction of environmental impacts over the whole life cycle need to be considered in the system design. Optimal system designs can be identified using software: Recently, the open-source framework SecMOD was introduced for the linear optimization of multi-energy system models, considering environmental impacts by fully integrating life-cycle assessment. In this work, we extend SecMOD to allow mixed-integer decisions that are vital to model industrial energy systems. Thereby, we provide the first open-source mixed-integer linear program framework with full integration of life-cycle assessment. We use SecMOD to investigate the benefits of a pumped-thermal energy storage system in a sector-coupled industrial energy system and identify trade-offs regarding the system design by comparing the economic and climate optimum.