Optimal Design of Carbon And Hydrogen Supply Chains

Within the analysis on energy systems, hydrogen is often assessed as a seasonal storage medium for the energy sector, while carbon dioxide is seen as a source of carbon emissions. However, accounting for sector-coupling and going beyond the energy sector requires considering hydrogen and carbon as feedstock and services. This is the case when dealing with solutions to achieve net-zero emissions in hard-to-abate sectors (e.g. chemical, aviation, cement, iron and steel, waste-to-energy sectors), which are responsible for nearly one-third of global carbon emissions. In hard-to-abate sectors carbon emissions are largely due to the use of carbon as a feedstock (e.g. fossil carbon in chemical products), hence net-zero emissions require going beyond the energy supply.

Available solutions to achieve net-zero emissions in hard-to-abate sectors include carbon capture, transport and storage (CCTS) and carbon capture and utilization (CCU). When routes based on CCU are adopted, and no fossil fuels are allowed, novel supply chains of hydrogen and carbon must be envisioned, assessed and designed to deliver such feedstock to the consumption sites. At the same way, when routes based on CCTS are adopted, carbon supply chains must be correctly designed to capture transport and permanently store carbon.

We address these challenges by developing optimization tools to investigate the optimal evolution of hydrogen and carbon supply chains, and their correlation with the energy sector, from today to 2050.