General systems modelling of hydrogen production network in Australia

June 8th, 2022

R&D Focus Areas:
Computational modelling, Hydrogen market development

Lead Organisation:
The University of Queensland

Partners:
Kyushu University (Japan)

Status:
Active

Start date:
February 2022

Completion date:
2025

Key contacts:
Dr. Alex Klimenko: a.klimenko@uq.edu.au
Dr. Yuanshen Lu: y.lu7@uq.edu.au

Funding:
Australian Research Council

Project total cost:
AUD$450,000 plus in-kind contributions

Project summary description:
The project aims at further developing a general framework for systems modelling and applying the framework to investigate the feasibility and sustainability of large-scale hydrogen production in Australia.

Two pathways proposed in this project are to be examined:

  • Hybrid plants sourcing hydrogen from fossil fuels and solar thermal energy, and
  • Hydrogen production network producing hydrogen from 100% renewable energy

The project involves building systems models and using these models to determine optimal operational parameters and conditions with the goal of maintaining export of high-end energy resources to Japan and other countries as well as using hydrogen domestically while minimising the environment effects of hydrogen production.

The project is addressing several challenges that are deeply shaping export-orientated renewable hydrogen network, including emerging fundamental changes in electricity markets which underpin wide use of renewable hydrogen, feasible large-scale green hydrogen utilisation through the metallurgy sector—hydrogen-based steel-making processes, and smarter data-driven decision-making methodology for the hydrogen supply chain.

Related publications and key links:
Kratzer, M. M., Bhatia, S. K., & Klimenko, A. Y. (2024). On the increased interfacial resistance of hydrogen in carbon nanotube arrays and its effect on gas mixture separation. Journal of Applied Physics, 135(23).

Kratzer, M. M., Bhatia, S. K., & Klimenko, A. Y. (2023). Stochastic models of free-molecular nanopore flows. The Journal of Chemical Physics, 158(21).

Kratzer, M. M., Green, D., & Klimenko, A. Y. (2023, December). Optimisation of energy storage systems for hydrogen production and stable energy supply. In 2023 IEEE International Conference on Energy Technologies for Future Grids (ETFG) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.

Lu, Y., Klimenko, A. Y., Qiu, Y., Zhang, C. (2024), Advanced modelling of H2-based direct reduction in shaft furnaces, HBIS-UQ ICSS Symposium 2024, Shijiazhuang, China, 23-25 May 2024

Qiu, Y., Lu, Y., Klimenko, A. Y., Han, X., Han, T., Wang, G. (2023), CFD-DEM modelling for the gas-particle flow behaviour under charging process in hydrogen-rich injection shaft furnace, 2023 International Symposium on Hydrogen Metallurgy (ISHM2023), Hebei, China, September 5-7, 2023

Dylan Green, Alexander Klimenko, Moving Window Method for Time Series Optimisation, with Applications to Energy Storage and Hydrogen Production, submitted to the journal Advances in Applied Energy

M.M. Kratzer and A.Y. Klimenko, Analysis of Large-Scale Energy Storage Using Bilger’s Oxyfuel Process, Proceedings of the Australian Combustion Symposium, Darwin, Australia

A. Y. Klimenko, Bilger’s Zero Carbon Release Combustion Technology as Energy Storage, 14th Asia-Pacific Conf. Comb., Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 2023.

Higher degree studies supported:
Three PhD students plus Master of Engineering students are supported by this project.

 

Reviewed: July 2024