The implementation of processes that use renewable energy requires that a techno-economic analysis be performed beforehand to determine its economic and technical feasibility. A techno-economic analysis was performed proposed wind farms in Trinidad and Tobago using the System Advisor Model simulation software. Metrics included the annual energy production in kWh, capacity factor, net present value in US$ and internal rate of return. From the above, the number of households that can be powered each month by the farms were calculated. The results showed that rotor diameter, which defines the swept area has a significant impact on annual energy production as a 33 m difference translated into a 27.3 GWh and 22.9 GWh difference in output. The results are promising and show that the oil and natural gas-based economy can be diversified.

Industrial decarbonization is crucial to reducing global emissions. Efficient processes lower energy use and reduce the environmental impacts, such as material use and waste, decreasing the overall industrial footprint. In this context, the present study explores the impact of reducing steam consumption (thermal energy) during the ammonia regeneration process in the production of sodium carbonate. A key feature of the Solvay process is ammonia recycling, which significantly reduces raw material consumption and ensures both economic and environmental sustainability. However, this stage is highly energy-intensive. To enhance energy efficiency in soda ash production, a study was conducted to analyze variation in temperature, pressure, and steam flow introduced into the ammonia regeneration system. The objective is to understand its impact on both ammonia recovery and the process's energy consumption. Variations in steam pressure do not impact on energy consumption of the process. By reduc... [more]

The rapid integration of renewable energy sources is increasing the volatility and non-stationarity of modern power systems, posing significant challenges for data-driven forecasting models. In particular, concept drift and uncertainty in exogenous inputs such as weather forecasts can severely degrade predictive performance over time. This work proposes a lightweight two-layer forecasting framework that decouples prediction from adaptation. A traditional offline regression model is augmented by an online meta-learner that continuously generates adaptive meta-features, enabling the system to respond to structural changes and noisy inputs without repeated retraining. The framework is evaluated on two real-world case studies. First, concept drift is addressed in nuclear power production forecasting, where abrupt and gradual capacity changes are inferred through an online meta-learner. Second, feature uncertainty is mitigated in day-ahead solar production forecasting by correcting noisy we... [more]

The present work aims to demonstrate the synergy achieved through the integration of biomass gasification with a direct air capture (DAC) system to maximize overall CO2 removal capacity, while simultaneously converting waste into value-added products (hydrogen) and supplying the energy required for DAC operation (BG-H2P-DAC). The proposed configuration is modeled using Aspen Plus to investigate the synergistic interactions and key performance indicators of the BG-H2P-DAC system. Parametric analyses are conducted by varying gasification temperature, air inlet flow rate, and amine concentration and flow rate. The results indicate that increasing the monoethanolamine (MEA) concentration from 10% to 40% leads to a gradual decline in CO2 capture efficiency, accompanied by a reduction in CO2 slip. The system achieves a net specific electricity consumption of 0.0293 MWh/t CO2, confirming that the electricity generated from the integrated steam power cycle is sufficient to fully offset the ele... [more]

Brazed aluminum heat exchangers (BAHX) are key cryogenic equipment, but their simulation is sensitive to phase change modelling. This work benchmarks ProSec, CO-ProSec Reaction, and Aspen EDR on an ethylene-chiller BAHX using ethane in thermosiphon mode. ProSec's interpolation scheme of tabulated data is validated against CO-ProSec Reaction's approach that employs a thermodynamic model for the evaluation of thermodynamic and physical properties; an initial 25% pressure drop gap is traced to different void-fraction models (slip vs homogeneous). Against Aspen EDR, default duty/quality are ~15% higher; differences are mainly due to nucleate-boiling treatment and distributor pressure drop modelling. Harmonizing options reduces duty mismatch to ~5%.

Geologic hydrogen has emerged as a promising low-carbon energy vector, but its sustainable recovery requires effective stimulation and production strategies. This study presents an integrated process-modeling framework for evaluating hydrogen extraction from hydraulically stimulated reservoirs. The framework combines fracture propagation, damage evolution, Darcy-scale multiphase flow, permeability-aperture dynamics, and a dual-porosity dual-permeability (DPDP) representation to simulate hydrogen production in fractured source rock systems. In addition to production dynamics, the framework tracks operational water and energy inputs and incorporates a simplified reaction-extent formulation to represent hydrogen generation under data-limited conditions. The model was benchmarked against published shale gas production results to evaluate its ability to reproduce fracture-controlled production behavior and was subsequently applied to a representative multi-well hydrogen development scenario... [more]

Green hydrogen constitutes a strategic energy vector for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 7, 9, 12, and 13) due to its high energy density, flexibility for renewable energy storage, and direct emission-free operation. However, its production critically depends on the supply of high-purity water, which is unsustainable in the context of a projected 40% global water deficit by 2030. Given that more than 97% of available water is saline, integrating desalination processes with electrolysis constitutes an essential strategy for transitioning toward circular economy models in water resource management. This work presents the conceptual design, detailed modeling, and optimization of an integrated process for the sustainable production of green hydrogen from saline water. The system couples a desalination technology (Solar Distillation) with two electrolysis technologies (AEL and SOEC), modeled through physicochemical, electrochemical, and thermodynamic principles. The object... [more]

This study conducted a life cycle assessment to assess and design regional symbiosis at plant-oil production. These industries face challenges including dependence on fossil fuels and the generation of underutilized by-products, while effective regional symbiosis requires the selection of diverse regional unused resources and assessment based on process models that consider future technological prospects. Mathematical models for plant-oil production were developed using industrial data from literature to calculate inventory data. The case study showed that introducing woody biomass combined heat and power reduced GHG emissions by 8% in the Cradle-to-Grave system boundary, while recycling technology for soap stock using Kolbe electrolysis achieved a 3% reduction. Regional analysis indicated that 33 prefectures in Japan could meet woody biomass demand through sustainable forestry management, potentially reducing GHG emissions in Japan by approximately 0.041%. These results suggest that r... [more]

Historical US prices for oil, natural gas, and coal from 1984 to March 2026. Prices are adjusted for inflation and are expressed on a per-energy content basis. Key historical events that cause changes to price are annotated.

Model simulation flowsheet of biomass gasification combined cycle system for simultaneous power and hydrogen production coupled with direct air capture in Aspen Plus.

This document compiles the digital supplementary material associated with the article entitled “Optimizing Steam Flux for Energy Efficiency in Ammonia Recovery during Sodium Carbonate Production”, published in the peer-reviewed proceedings of the 36th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering (ESCAPE 36). It presents the effects of variations in steam pressure and temperature on the system’s temperature and mass flow rate.

The use of waste heat from electrolysis can significantly increase process efficiency. Alkaline and PEM electrolyzers, the most mature technologies, produce low-temperature waste heat. Most studies focus on using this waste heat for low-temperature applications like district heating. Alternatively, this waste heat can be upgraded to a temperature that can be usable in the chemical industry, e.g., for steam generation. The combination of an alkaline electrolyzer with a heat pump has been recently investigated to supply both hydrogen and medium-temperature heat. Optimizing electrolyzers for both hydrogen and heat production (combined design) has been shown to have advantages over optimizing for hydrogen only and upgrading the waste heat a posteriori (separate design). However, the effects of electrolyzer pressure and hydrogen compression were not considered, and it remains unclear if similar benefits apply to PEM electrolyzers. This work further analyzes the combined system (i.e., electr... [more]

A transition to low-carbon fuels is integral in addressing the challenge of climate change. An essential transformation is underway in the transportation sector, one of the primary sources of global greenhouse gas emissions. The electrofuels that represent methanol synthesis via power-to-fuel technology have the potential to decarbonize the sector. This paper outlines a critical comprehensive life cycle assessment for electrofuels, with this study focusing on the production of synthetic methanol from renewable hydrogen from water electrolysis coupled with carbon from the direct air capture (DAC) process. This study has provided a comparison of the environmental impacts of synthetic methanol produced from grids of five regions (India, the US, China, Switzerland, and the EU) with conventional methanol from coal gasification and natural gas reforming. The results from this impact assessment show a high dependency of environmental scores on the footprint of the grid. Switzerland, with its... [more]

Wastewater treatment and resources recovery from large wastewater flowrates of the municipalities and circular bio-based economy ask for efficient control solutions. The paper presents solutions for operating the wastewater treatment plant, based on advanced process control methods aimed to merge the benefits of the cooperation between the lower-level regulatory control loops and the upper-level model predictive control strategy. The lower-level is designed to regulate the nitrification in the aerated bioreactors by controlling the Dissolved Oxygen or the ammonia concentration and to control the denitrification in the anoxic reactor by controlling the nitrates concentration. The model predictive controller either sets the setpoints of the regulatory layer or directly manipulates the air and nitrate recycle flow rates. The plant performance results obtained using the regulatory Proportional and Integral control are compared to the direct or the supervisory model predictive control outco... [more]

By 2050 around 12% of cumulative emissions reductions will come from Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) making it an essential component in the path towards net zero [1]. Focus will initially be on the retrofitting of fossil fuel power plants, which will shift to hard-to-decarbonise industries such as iron, steel, and concrete [1]. Such industries are often grouped together in industrial clusters. Comprising both large and small point sources concentrated over a defined geographical area, industrial clusters offer an opportunity to maximise the impact of CCUS whilst also improving economic feasibility [2]. The North Sea Port (NSP) cluster an example of this. Within the NSP cluster an initial set of five emitters are to join a capture, conditioning, and transport network by 2030. From there other emitters within the area will be able to join incrementally to 2050 [3]. However, the emitters who join and the timing of their connection will have a significant effect on the evo... [more]

With increasing emphasis on energy efficiency, more researchers are focusing on energy-efficient flexible job shop scheduling problems. Mathematical programming is a commonly used optimization method for such scheduling challenges, offering the advantages of achieving global optima and serving as a foundation for other approaches. However, current mathematical programming formulations face several challenges, including insufficient consideration of various forms of energy consumption and low efficiency, particularly in handling large-scale instances, which struggle to converge. In this study, we propose a novel global sequence-based approach with high computational efficiency. In this model, immediate precedence relationships are identified using constraints, enabling the precise determination of idle durations within any idle slots. The proposed formulation achieves a significant reduction in energy consumption by up to 20% relative to other formulations. Furthermore, it successfully... [more]

The integration of carbon capture and storage (CCS) into coal and biomass co-firing systems (CBCCS) offers a promising solution for reducing carbon emissions in electricity generation. This study evaluates hypothetical scenarios in Malaysia and Indonesia, focusing on techno-economic-environmental transparency. The analysis shows a negligible change in plant net efficiency (~1%) across biomass co-firing ratios of 5-20% in both countries. The capture penalty increases at higher biomass ratios, particularly at 20% co-firing, due to higher auxiliary power demands and steam extraction. As biomass share increases, net CO2 emissions decrease by an average of 43% in Malaysia and 34% in Indonesia. Economic evaluations show a positive revenue increase for Malaysia at a 20% co-firing ratio, while Indonesia faces a revenue deficit (0.6%) under the same condition, mainly due to an unattractive carbon price and feed-in tariff from 2027 onward. Malaysia faces a higher risk of stranded assets due to e... [more]

A generally applicable framework for the evaluation of the sustainability of distillation processes is proposed by aligning indicators directly to selected sustainable development goals (SDGs) created by the United Nations. The indicators are related to the goals good health and well-being (SDG 3), clear water and sanitation (SDG 6), affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9), responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), climate action (SDG 13) and life below water (SDG 14). A total of 12 sustainability indicators, including human toxicity potential, wastewater generation, water consumption, renewable energy share, energy demand, material footprint, profit, waste generation, recycling ratio of waste, greenhouse gas emission, eutrophication potential and acidification potential are assigned to selected SDGs. The application of the indicators is illustrated by two case studies: a batch (BD) and a conti... [more]

This work presents a macroscopic, high-level representation of the interconnected nexus system, utilizing a resource allocation model to capture the interactions between the power and water subsystems. The model is employed to assess the system's performance under various external stressor impact scenarios, determining the thresholds at which the system can no longer maintain a continuous supply of functional services (i.e. power and water), which reveal the system's vulnerabilities. Resilience metrics are incorporated to interpret these results and characterize the nexus performance. The proposed methodology is generalizable, and its capabilities will be demonstrated through a case study on the energy-water nexus in the Gulf Cooperation Council region.

Real-time carbon accounting is crucial for advancing policies that effectively meet sustainability objectives. This work introduces a carbon tracking tool specifically designed for the European electricity grid. The tool collects hourly data on electricity consumption and generation, cross-border power exchanges, and weather information to assess the real-time environmental effects of electricity use, employing locally-specific emission factors for the generation sources. It utilizes weather data from various stations across Europe to produce week-ahead forecasts of carbon intensity in the grid. Predictions are created using a random forest regressor, integrated within the optimal controller of an operational industrial batch process. This prediction-based optimizer seeks to reduce total emissions tied to the process schedule's electricity consumption by implementing a rolling horizon strategy. By leveraging enhanced energy flexibility, the controller provides significant opportunities... [more]

The overarching goal of process design (Figure 1) is to find technologically feasible, operable, economically attractive, safe and sustainable processing pathways and process configurations with specifications for the connectivity and design of unit operations that perform a set of tasks using selected functional materials (e.g., catalysts, solvents, sorbents, etc.) to convert a set of feed-stocks or raw materials into a set of products with desired quality at a scale that satisfies the demand. Process synthesis and integration can further screen, optimize and improve these pathways for given techno-econo-environmental targets or objectives. These objectives may include, but are not limited to, minimizing the overall investment and processing costs, minimizing the energy consumption, minimizing the emissions or wastes, maxim-zing the profit, and enhancing the safety, operability, controllability, flexibility, circularity, and sustainability, among others... (ABSTRACT ABBREVIATED)

This work explores the economic and environmental opportunities for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in the Brazilian sugarcane industry. Brazil was one of the first countries to use biomass fuels for transportation and is currently the 2nd largest producer of the world’s bioethanol. Bioethanol produced from sugarcane can be upgraded to SAF via the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)-certified pathway alcohol-to-jet (ATJ); however, at least two challenges exist for commercial implementation. First, technologies to produce bio-jet fuels cost more than their conventional fossil-based counterparts. Second, there is considerable uncertainty regarding returns on investment as the sugar and ethanol markets have been historically volatile. As such, we propose a new optimization model to inform risk-conscious investment decisions on SAF production capacity in sugarcane mills. Specifically, we propose a linear program (LP) to model an integrated sugarcane mill that can produce suga... [more]

The food-energy-water nexus (FEWN) has been receiving increasing interest in the open literature as a framework to address the widening gap between natural resource availability and demand, towards more sustainable and cost-competitive solutions. The FEWN aims at holistically integrating the three interconnected subsystems of food, energy and water, into a single representative network. However, such an integration poses formidable challenges due to the complexity and multi-scale nature of the three subsystems and their respective interconnections. Additionally, the significant input data uncertainty and variability, such as energy prices and demands, or the evaluation of emerging technologies, contribute to the system’s inherent complexity. In this work, we revisit the FEWN problem in an attempt to elucidate and address in a systematic way issues related to its multi-scale complexity, uncertainty and variability. In particular, we provide a classification of the sources of data and te... [more]

Achieving worldwide sustainable development is a practical challenge that demands an efficient management of resources across their entire value chains. This practical task requires the optimal selection of pathways for extracting, processing, and transporting resources to meet the demands in different geographic regions at minimal economic cost and environmental impact. This work addresses the challenge by proposing a systematic framework for designing resource-processing networks that can be applied to resource management problems. The framework considers the integration and resource exchange within and across multiple processing clusters. It allows for the life cycle assessment of the environmental and economic impacts of the defined value chains, and design accordingly the different processing and transport systems from extraction to final use. The proposed representation and optimization model are demonstrated in a case study to assess the impact of energy transition under decarbo... [more]

Utilizing sustainable energy sources is crucial for expanding the range of solutions available to meet the growing energy demand and reducing reliance on environmentally damaging and depleting conventional fuels. Biosolids, a type of biomass, are generated as secondary effluent during wastewater treatment process in municipal and industrial sites. These solids possess the potential to serve as a sustainable energy source due to their richness of carbon. For an extended period, biosolids have been landfilled, even though it can be considered a wasteful use of a precious resource and a possible mean for contamination to the food supply chain. This has served as an extra impetus to investigate the potential for harnessing the capabilities of these substances. While many research studies have looked at different ways to put biomass waste to use, very little has been written on biosolids, especially those derived from industrial sources. This research assesses the feasibility of transformin... [more]