Webinar: Flexible operation of power-to-X plants producing green fuels – The case of plastic waste-to-methanol (PWtM)

Power-to-X plants are key to the green transition because they can transform green electricity to green fuels. However, it is not straightforward to create a business case for green fuel production from renewable energy. If the plant is operated behind-the-meter, the energy production will fluctuate, and if it is connected to the grid, the electricity price will vary. Consequently, the plant must be operated flexibly. Furthermore, the profit from the exported fuel can change over time. Therefore, the task of planning the operation of the plant is not easy, and it must be done over and over again. In this webinar, we will discuss how mathematical models and optimization tools can be used to ease this task. Specifically, we will present the outcomes of the Videnbro project PWtM-Flex, which is a collaboration between the Technical University of Denmark and the startup companies SemperCycle ApS and Nordic Hydrogen ApS.

The PWtM-Flex project focuses on SemperCycles plastic waste-to-methanol (PWtM) plant that uses oxygen and hydrogen from an electrolysis unit to produce synthetic gas (syngas) by gasifying the plastic waste. This syngas is used to produce methanol. In the project, we have developed a mathematical model of both the gasification process and the profit from operating the entire plant, including the electrolyzer. Based on this model, we use optimization tools to determine how the plant should be operated for a given sequence of renewable energy production and methanol prices. The optimization tools produce, e.g., hourly schedules that indicate how much plastic waste should be processed and how much oxygen and hydrogen is needed from the electrolysis unit.

The learnings from this project are equally relevant to other types of PtX plants, where it is also necessary to account for many types of revenue streams, varying prices, and process-specific operational constraints. Furthermore, the developed models and optimization tools can also be modified to represent other types of PtX processes and help them make their operation profitable.

Organizers: Technical University of Denmark, Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science (compute.dtu.dk), SemperCycle ApS (sempercycle.com), Nordic Hydrogen (nordichydrogen.dk), Energy Cluster Denmark (energycluster.dk)

(The event is supported by Ministry of Higher Education and Science)