Modelling of Peripheral Components and Evaluation of a Heat-Integration Concept for a Power-to-Methanol System based on p-SOECs

Due to the constantly growing utilization of wind and solar energy, the demand for technologies for temporal and spatial decoupling of energy provision and consumption is steadily increasing. The application of proton-conducting high temperature solid oxide electrolysis cells (p-SOECs) has been a main concern in recent research activities since they offer an environmentally friendly and efficient technique for the single step conversion of excess energy from renewables into pure hydrogen. As renewables occur intermittently, SOEC designs and all employed materials have to be capable of withstanding large electrical transients and therefore harsh operating conditions. Tubular SOEC designs are characterized by inherent advantages: They offer rapid start-up capabilities, a high resistance to thermal stresses and are usable for high-pressure application. Combined with suitable downstream syntheses units (e.g. methanol synthesis), innovative power-to-X systems can be provided for the production of valuable liquid or gaseous chemicals from H2 and anthropogenic CO2 as a chemical storage of excess energy. This work aims to modify the existing dynamic system model and extend it with regard to specific peripheral system components (compressors, evaporators, heat exchangers, pre-heaters, super-heaters and condensers). These peripheral components are ought to be modelled as simplified dynamic 0D black-box models and basic design specifications (dimensions, power demands, etc.) are to be determined with the given system parameters for the conditioning of all employed reactant, intermediate and product gas streams. Furthermore, the extended system model should be used to evaluate a given heat integration concept, which is fully utilizing all waste, intermediate and product gas streams of the power-to-methanol system. The overall system efficiency is to be determined for different load cases during intermittent operation.