Green simulations to bring down the cost of energy
Many countries are exploring alternatives to fossil fuels as they look to develop more sustainable means of meeting the overall demand for energy. Effective and reliable simulations of green energy processes will have an important role to play in this transition and in reducing the overall cost of green energy, as Knut Erik Spilling of the GreenTwins project explains.
Many countries across the world are seeking to develop renewable sources of energy, part of a move away from fossil fuels to a more sustainable means of meeting the overall demand for energy. This will involve significant changes in the way the energy sector operates, and simulations will have an important role to play in easing/mitigating the transition. “With simulations you can cover the operational aspects of an energy plant at a very high level of detail,” says Knut Erik Spilling, CEO of Billington Process Technology (BPT), a digital solution company based just outside Oslo. As part of their work on the GreenTwins project, Spilling and his team at BPT are developing high-fidelity simulators of several green transition processes, designed to help energy companies develop and operate new energy plants effectively and efficiently, throughout the entire lifecycle. “We are developing digital representations – green twins – of energy plants,” he explains. “These green twins can be used to avoid design failures, develop control automation, test ‘what-if’ scenarios and help improve the design.”
Sustainable fuels
The primary focus in the project is on three main areas, representing an important contribution to the wider goal of encouraging the transition towards more sustainable fuels. One area of interest is the storage of energy from concentrated solar power, a process in which sunlight is concentrated into
a relatively small area, which is used to heat an intermediate material. “The heat is stored and retrieved using supercritical CO2 as the working fluid in a Brayton cycle, using turbine expanders to create electricity,” outlines Spilling. “Researchers in the project are working to simulate this process, where the main performance indicators are simulation speed, stability and accuracy. An additional challenge is to achieve reliable simulation results during
The third area of interest is called Powerto-X. This area looks at the production of fuels using hydrogen produced from excess renewable electricity. One example of Powerto-X is the synthesis of ammonia, another is the production of kerosene as an e-fuel from excess renewable energy, which Spilling says is targeted at the aviation sector. “We want to replace the emission-heavy jet fuel currently used on planes with synthetic fuel,” he explains.
“Simulations are already used for design, operational support and troubleshooting in the oil and gas industry. They could be used in a similar way in the green energy sector, to optimise performance and reduce energy consumption.”
dynamics like plant start-up, shutdown and load changes, as well as when the CO2 contains impurities (as normally is the case).”
A second area involves looking at taking the electricity from the first area or any other renewable source and using it to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, says Spilling. The modelling of this process is challenging because the supply of renewable electricity is by nature variable and the electrolysis process will also vary in time. This process of water electrolysis is a very power-intensive step, but once the hydrogen is available it can then be used for different purposes, for example as fuel or in energy storage.
The process of producing kerosene in this way is highly complex, and so is the corresponding simulation, yet this also means that a reliable and effective simulator could have a major impact. “The process facility is quite complicated, involving the use of electrolysis and reactors. This has been done at small scales, and the process is quite expensive,” acknowledges Spilling. “The simulator for this process is more complicated, but it also adds a lot of value, helping to optimise performance and reduce design time.”
The simulator in each of these three cases is designed to fully reflect the processes involved, with researchers benchmarking the simulator
against lab results and pilot plant data. The project team are collaborating closely with several equipment vendors, and Spilling says their feedback helps guide the ongoing development of the simulators. “We calibrate and improve the simulators as more information becomes available,” he says. These simulators hold rich potential for the industry, as they could help companies rapidly improve efficiency as they adapt to new ways of working, without needing to make costly investments. “You can simulate how a process will work, without needing to go into a plant,” explains Spilling. “Simulations are already used for troubleshooting in the oil and gas industry. They could be used in a similar way in the green energy sector, to optimise performance, improve reliability and reduce energy consumption.”
Green energy
There is a lot of scope for improvement in this sector, as green energy is still a relatively young area of the industry, and so the protocols around developing and using simulations are not particularly well established. Simulations of oil and gas processes improved rapidly following substantial investment in the sector around 30-40 years ago however, and Spilling is convinced something similar can happen as the green energy sector grows. “It may take some years before the simulations are streamlined, but there is a lot of potential for improvement,” he says. While BPT has long experience in the oil and gas sector, Spilling expects the green energy sector to continue to grow over the coming years, driven in large part by concerns about climate change and the impact of US government policy. “The Inflation Reduction Act in the US has helped stimulate
green energy. Perceptions of green energy are shifting, and it is increasingly considered to be an important sector,” he continues.
This is paralleled to a large degree in Europe, with climate change concerns and the war in Ukraine helping to accelerate the shift towards renewable energy, as countries across the continent seek to reduce their dependence on Russian gas. Against this backdrop, Spilling expects the green energy sector will continue to grow over the coming years, and he aims to position BPT at the forefront of what is a growing market for industry expertise. “We anticipate that the green energy sector will grow in future, and we see a lot of interest from all over the world in our software products and domain knowledge,” he outlines. “We see a global market developing in the provision of both services and simulation software, working with end users and consulting companies. There is a lot of commercial potential in this work.”
The project’s research has primarily been focused on the three conversion processes described earlier, but Spilling says simulators could also be applied on other processes involving complex chemistry within the green energy sector, for example carbon capture, utilisation and storage. By participating in projects like GreenTwins and others, the team at BPT are building the expertise to help their partners optimise the performance of green energy plants in different parts of the world.
“Some countries have high levels of sunlight exposure, so look to develop solar power, while others look to harness wind power. For example, Denmark generates more than 50 percent of its electricity from wind power,” says Spilling. “We aim to build up our domain knowledge about these green process plants.”
GreenTwins
Lifecycle Digital Twins of Green Process Plants to Support Fast and Cost-Efficient Climate Action
Project Objectives
The main objective with the EU project is to develop high fidelity simulators that could efficiently support the global community converting from use of fossil to sustainable fuels in an accelerated manner. Simulators will play an important role in different development and operational stages for new energy plants, from early concept development, technical/ economical de-risking, design, start-up as well as throughout years of operations. Technology gaps with current commercial simulators need to be closed. In particular, development of simulator unit operations crucial in green energy systems like electrolysis and a variety of reactor models are focused. Also, implementation of high-performance thermodynamic property packages is essential to ensure fast, robust and accurate simulator performance. The Green Twins models are for both steady state and fully dynamic purposes.
Project Funding
This project is funded by the Research council of Norway
Project Partners
BPT is the project leader with a focus on process modelling and overall performance. BPT works closely with Hafnium Labs (Copenhagen) with its main expertise in thermodynamics.
Contact Details
Project Coordinator, Knut Erik Spilling
Løkketangen 20B, N-1337 Sandvika, Norway
T: +47 90087976
E: info@bpt.no
W: www.greentwins.no
Knut Erik Spilling
Knut Erik Spilling is M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering with more than 30 years’ experience in various companies within the energy sector. His track record is process design, modelling, simulation studies and deployment of digital solutions in technical, business and management positions. He is currently leading the BPT team as CEO.
