Smart Energy Usage for Vehicle Charging and House Heating

In northern Europe the electricity price is set by hourly rates one day in advance. The price fluctuates due to supply and demand, and these fluctuations are expected to increase when solar and wind power are increased in the energy system. The potential in cost reduction for heating a house and charging of an electrified vehicle by using a smart energy management system in a household is investigated. Dynamic programming is used and a simulation study of a household in Sweden comparing this optimal control scheme with a heuristic controller is carried out. The time frame in the study is one year and a novel way of handling the fact that the vehicle is disconnected from the grid at some times is developed. A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle is considered, but the methodology is the same also for pure electric vehicles. It is found that the potential in energy cost reduction for house heating and vehicle charging is significant and that using a smart energy management system is a promising path of cost reduction, especially with the introduction of electrified vehicles. </p

Methanol production via pressurized entrained flow biomass gasification – Techno-economic comparison of integrated vs. stand-alone production

The main objective with this work was to investigate techno-economically the opportunity for integrated gasification-based biomass-to-methanol production in an existing chemical pulp and paper mill. Three different system configurations using the pressurized entrained flow biomass gasification (PEBG) technology were studied, one stand-alone plant, one where the bark boiler in the mill was replaced by a PEBG unit and one with a co-integration of a black liquor gasifier operated in parallel with a PEBG unit. The cases were analysed in terms of overall energy efficiency (calculated as electricity-equivalents) and process economics. The economics was assessed under the current as well as possible future energy market conditions. An economic policy support was found to be necessary to make the methanol production competitive under all market scenarios. In a future energy market, integrating a PEBG unit to replace the bark boiler was the most beneficial case from an economic point of view. In this case the methanol production cost was reduced in the range of 11-18 Euro per MWh compared to the stand-alone case. The overall plant efficiency increased approximately 7%-units compared to the original operation of the mill and the non-integrated stand-alone case. In the case with co-integration of the two parallel gasifiers, an equal increase of the system efficiency was achieved, but the economic benefit was not as apparent. Under similar conditions as the current market and when methanol was sold to replace fossil gasoline, co-integration of the two parallel gasifiers was the best alternative based on received IRR.</p