POWER-TO-X OPTIMIZATION,

SIMULATION AND
EXPERIMENTAL WORK:
NEO-CARBON ENERGY AND
SOLETAIR PROJECTS
Jouni Savolainen
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd., Finland

6th OTTI Conference Power-to-Gas:

Power-to-Gas and Power-to-X for Europe‘s Energy Transition
March 15th, 2017, Düsseldorf
 § NeoCarbon Energy-project
/ CONTENTS
§ Modelling, simulation and
optimization
§ Approach

§ Examples

§ Soletair-project
 §
/ NEOCARBON §
3.5 years 2014-2017
10 M€

ENERGY § 3 Finnish research

partners
§ 15 industrial partners

Contact:
Pasi VAINIKKA, +358 40 5825987
Principal scientist VTT, Adjunct professor LUT
@VainikkaPMJ
pasi.vainikka@vtt.fi

www.neocarbonenergy.fi
facebook.com/neocarbonenergy
twitter: @neocarbonenergy
/ NEOCARBON
ENERGY WP1: Neo-Carbon Enabling Neo-Growth
Society – Transformative Energy Futures

WP2: Energy System Analyses

WP3: New Business arising from the

Energy Market’s Strategic Change

WP4: Process simulation

and modelling

WP5: PtX conversion

process development

WP6: International collaboration

WP7:
Management, dissemination
 / INTERNET OF
ENERGY

Prof. Breyer / LUT http://neocarbonenergy.fi/internetofenergy/

/ NEOCARBON
ENERGY WP1: Neo-Carbon Enabling Neo-Growth
Society – Transformative Energy Futures

WP2: Energy System Analyses

WP3: New Business arising from the

Energy Market’s Strategic Change

WP4: Process simulation

and modelling

WP5: PtX conversion

process development

WP6: International collaboration

WP7:
Management, dissemination
 §
/ PROCESS Approach

SIMULATION § Examples

AND • Video material on Youtube

http://vtt.smh.re/7k
MODELLING
 WP2
/ APPROACH
WP5 WP3 • Logistics
PtX Long Term Model
• Infrastructure
Large scale decisions and visions
infra • System integration
T4.1
configu-
• rations,
Grid econ.
balancing
regional • Local/site integration operational
performance &
•
PtXIntermittent renewables
Operational optimization constraints
integration
T4.2
operating • Prices
plant schedule • Robust optimization
• Electrolysis (AEC, PEM, SOEC)
• Syntheses (CH4, MeOH, NH3)
•PtX Biological
Virtualmeth.
plant technical performance &
• CO2 capt./prod. constraints
•Detailed dynamical operation of PtX plants
Gas storages
unit •T4.3Power electronics
operation • Grid connections
• Model Predictive Control

second minute hour day week month year

 • Multi-use
/ EXAMPLE 1 – SNG
– O2 sales
MULTIUSE •
– Electrical grid support
Optimize operational

P2G FCR Constant power

schedule
– Operate P2G plant
alternatively in FCR and
constant power modes
– Hour-to-hour schedule
Power elec. power between
1.8MW – 9 MW
(60%±40%)
Freq.
– FCR mode: grid frequency
affects the power via droop
curve i.e.
~4 hours used power can vary
– Constant power mode:
used power determined
beforehand by optimization
Jouni Savolainen, Robert Weiss / VTT
 / EXAMPLE 1 MULTIUSE P2G
A: First 7h in FCR mode
H2 and O2 productions ~ consumptions A B E F
è Quite stable storage situation

B: 7:00 – 8:00 Switch to const. power (~8MW)

è H2 & O2 productions jump up
è Pressures rise
è Almost all O2 storage capacity used!
C: about 8:00 – 11:00 High production of O2
è Danger or purge to the sky!
è Drop electrical power in steps but D
also consumption drops
è Purge around 10 o’clock
è At around 11 O2 consumption jumps up
and purging ends
D: 8:00-11:00 Drop elec. power to ~3MW
è H2 production drops
è H2-MP-pressure drops gradually
è H2-MP-pressure reaches lower limit
è Feed pressure and flow to methanation C
drop
è CH4-% drops
H2-system starts to discharge HP storage
è Feed pressure and flow to methanation go
up again
è Situation normalises D
E: 11:00-18:00 Increase power
è O2 production gets closer to consumption
è O2 storages stabilize
F: 18:00-19:00 Stroges are not full and
good elec. price
è Produce more H2 and O2
 / EXAMPLE 2 Question: How can we limit the
rate of change of frequency
(ROCOF) in 100 % RE grid?
GRID INERTIA Ref.
Answer: By using inertia
mimicking control principle.
Wind Model
Solar
Hydro
Example: Finnish 2050 100%
PtG
CHP
+ + GRID
+ - RE grid is controlled with the
Nuclear BESS
BESS control method
Adaptation algorithm

Pasi Peltoniemi / LUT

 / EXAMPLE 3 Question: How to obtain CO2
for the processes? What
infrastructural elements
LOGISTICS are crucial?
Answer: Simulate different
configurations and
CO2 Storage CO2 Capture compare performance
indicators (€)
Example: Carbon capture
benefits from economy of
scale. It could be more
economical to use large
plants and transport the
€ CO2, rather than use small
CO2 sources without
transport

Hannu Karjunen / LUT

 / EXAMPLE 4 Question: How to operate a
small scale P2NH3 plant?
How to account for
P2NH3 uncertainties, e.g. wind
forecasts?
Answer: Determine the hour-
by-hour operational
schedule by robust
optimization.
Ascertain feasibility of the
schedule with high fidelity
process simulator.

Work presented in IRES’17

Robert Weiss / VTT

/ NEOCARBON
ENERGY WP1: Neo-Carbon Enabling Neo-Growth
Society – Transformative Energy Futures

WP2: Energy System Analyses

WP3: New Business arising from the

Energy Market’s Strategic Change

WP4: Process simulation

and modelling

WP5: PtX conversion

Soletair-project process development

WP6: International collaboration

WP7:
Management, dissemination
 World’s first demostration facility for production of synthetic
fuels by combination of direct air capture of
CO2 and H2 production by water electrolysis using solar energy.

VTT & LUT

 / PEM
Hydrogen production
• 4.5 kW nominal power
• 1 Nm3/h of H2
• Max. 50 bar (H2)
• Dew point −70°C

Hydrogen storage
• 2 x 350 l bottles
• Max. 50 bar (limited by
stack pressure)
• Max. capacity 35 Nm3
(without compression)
• Max. capacity @ >35 bar
10.5 Nm3

Antti Kosonen / LUT

 / DIRECT AIR CAPTURE

Direct Air Capture Pilot Device DAC at closer look

Capacity 3.8 kg/d CO2 Left: Control panel
Middle: Catridge or Bed
Right: Fans

Cyril Bajamundi / VTT

 / MOBILE SYNTHESIS UNIT
MOBSU is a multipurpose synthesis unit for CO2 (or CO)
upgrading to energy carriers and chemicals which can be
transported on-site where CO2 emissions or CO and energy are
available.

CO2

H2

Capacity 0.5 bpd

Pekka Simell, Christian Frilund / VTT

/ INAUGURATION
1 JUNE 2017
NEO-CARBON Energy project is one of the Tekes strategic research openings
and the project is carried out in cooperation with Technical Research Centre of
Finland VTT Ltd, Lappeenranta University of Technology LUT and
University of Turku, Finland Futures Research Centre FFRC.