Empowering Tomorrow: Emerging Trends in the Energy Sector

In maintaining the sustainability of the planet and reducing carbon dioxide emissions, energy systems innovation plays a cardinal role.

FREMONT, CA: To mitigate climate change, organisations have made a goal of significantly reducing CO₂ emissions. In consequence, governments and energy companies are moving away from fossil fuels and investing in renewable energy sources. Simulating systems and using model-based design have both helped in encouraging innovation and reducing the high input costs that many of these large-scale projects entail.

Energy Sector Emphasising Carbon Neutrality

The energy industry is leading the charge on decarbonisation with large investments in mature and low-cost renewable energy technologies like photovoltaic and wind. Dispatchable units, including fossil fuel plants, are currently balancing the production and demand of electricity in order to facilitate the quick deployment of renewable energy sources without endangering the stability of power systems. This is certainly going to be the case until large-scale energy storage technologies are widely accessible.

Energy companies have regained their interest in Carbon Capture and Storage technologies to address CO₂ emissions from existing assets. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is the process of capturing carbon dioxide before it enters the atmosphere, transporting it to a storage location, and isolating it for years. Post-combustion CO₂ absorption with liquid amine solvents has been studied for 15 years but has yet to be commercialised at the expected rate due to a lack of incentives and carbon taxes. But things are starting to change. To assess the cost of CCS and enable stable CO₂ removal rates while minimising the impact on the power plant, such as reduced power production or restrictions on transient operation, utility companies are now requesting academic engineering departments and commercial tools.

By making the steam reforming of methane a cheap and cleaner way of producing hydrogen until electrolytes have become more reasonable, CCS can also expedite the deployment of hydrogen technologies.

CCUS, or carbon capture, utilisation, and storage is a term used to describe a CCS-related concept. A similar concept underlies CCUS, except instead of storing carbon, it is converted into fuel, plastic, or concrete and then used in industrial operations. Direct air capture (DAC) can be used during the manufacturing of synthetic fuels like diesel or methane in place of point source capture. Although DAC is still in its early phases, businesses from different industries are exploring this route. This is due to the fact that it may leverage the current hydrocarbon infrastructure to make the transportation sector carbon-neutral.

Despite carbon capture has been acknowledged as an essential technology to meet climate goals, commercial deployment remains the key obstacle. This necessitates significant design, construction, and operating expense investments. For a cost-effective implementation of fulfilling targets for CO₂ emission reduction, several businesses have turned to model-based design and system simulation.

Energy Technology Storage Systems are in the Limelight

Considering that energy comes in multifarious forms which include, chemical, electrical, thermal, and mechanical, therefore the means and technologies of storing and converting energy differ significantly and are also plentiful.  For a wide deployment of renewable energy sources, energy storage systems have emerged as key enablers. The primary objective of storage projects in energy applications is to temporarily store excess renewable energy for later use. The difficulty for businesses is to develop these storage systems at a reasonable cost using materials and standard components that are widely available.

Thermal energy storage (TES) systems are emerging as the top choice for these businesses as they prioritise and budget for energy storage systems. TES is important for storing and converting heat into electricity as well as for heating and cooling applications (power-to-heat). Standard heat engines, including those found in thermal power plants currently in operation, are capable of efficiently converting heat stored at high temperatures into electrical energy. Concrete, stone, sand, or molten salt are some of the materials being looked into for the purpose of mass heat storage at a low cost. Technologies that use TES systems for power generation include:

Concentrated Solar Power- Solar radiation is concentrated, stored as heat, and then used in a heat engine to produce power.

Pumped Heat- Within a heat engine, renewable power is converted into heat using a heat pump which is then converted back to power.

Retrofitted Traditional Boilers- An existing facility has TES installed to store renewable energy from the grid as heat, which is then converted back to power using the steam cycle.

Hydrogen Fuels the Future

Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, is an incredibly versatile energy source with the ability to succeed several existing technologies providing longer-lasting, more sustainable alternatives for every industry.

Governments are investing considerably in projects connected to hydrogen. Engineers can use design and simulation tools at the component and system levels to speed up development and help them make the best choices along the entire value chain.

With respect to cost, efficiency, and safety, there is a prevailing need to improve design at the component level. Lowering the cost of green hydrogen production in electrolyzers is undeniably the most challenging task. There is evidently a good trade-off between sustainability and cost to produce hydrogen by combining steam reformation of methane and CCS in the near term.

Energy companies intend to use more hydrogen as fuel in gas-fired power plants, which is one aspect of usage. Fuel cells strive to improve performance and reduce production costs for stationary and mobile applications. System simulation can assist in enhancing the overall design and administration of fuel cells, from the management of water and heat to the supply of air and fuel.

In innovative energy solutions for 2023 and beyond, energy CCS, DAC, energy storage systems, and hydrogen technologies are on the rise. Optimisation of these large-scale projects for burgeoning results of bettering energy use for the future, model-based design and system simulation help innovators plan the design which also helps firms to become more energy efficient.