Combined heat/power plants versus the co-generation of heat and alternative transportation fuels - An energy-economy model based evaluation of cost-efficiency for the EU
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master Thesis
Master Thesis
Program
Publicerad
2003
Författare
Hansson, Julia
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
To address concern about impacts caused by the enhanced greenhouse effect, considerable changes in the present energy system have been called for. Substituting the fossil fuel based transportation fuels is one option. Co-generation of heat and power is another way to meet the new demands. But the introduction of alternative transportation fuels opens up for new cogeneration opportunities, which may increase the competition for a part of the heat demand. The purpose of this study was (i) to analyse cost-effective future fuel choices within the transportation sector and (ii) to investigate whether it is more cost-effective to meet certain parts of the future heat demand via the production of electricity or transportation fuels. The analysis was based on a linear programming model, minimising the cost of the energy system of the European Union when taking carbon abatement policies into consideration. The time frame for the study is 2000-2050. In the base case abatement scenario, the present use of oil in the transportation sector was substituted by natural gas. The natural gas was primarily used as a transportation fuel but during a transient period also to some extent transformed into methanol. Methanol was introduced also when the model was forced to use biomass in the transportation sector, but now produced from biomass. In both cases the methanol was produced with co-generation facilities, which then displaced heat that would otherwise have been generated via combined heat and power. However, the outcome of the model turned out to be sensitive to changes in several of the assumptions. Yet, under all circumstances, the model chose to replace the oil based transportation fuels with natural gas, methanol, or a combination of the two (and in some cases also a small contribution of hydrogen). In addition, generally in all the studied cases it seemed most cost-effective to supply the major part of the concerned part of the heat demand using combined heat and power plants, but to different extents also using co-production of transportation fuels.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
Miljöteknik , Environmental engineering