Optimal integration of renewable based processes for fuels and power production: Spain case study

In this work we propose a data independent framework for the optimal integration of renewable sources of energy to produce fuels and power. A network is formulated using surrogate models for various technologies that use solar energy (photovoltaic, concentrated solar power or algae to produce oil), wind, biomass (to obtain ethanol, methanol, FT-liquids and thermal energy), hydroelectric, and waste (to produce power plant via biogas production). The optimization model is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming model that evaluates the use of renewable resources and technologies and their integration to meet power and fuels demand; sustainability and CO2 emissions are also considered. The network can be applied to evaluate process integration at different scales, county to country level, including uncertainty availability of resources. Spain and particular regions are used as a case study. The framework suggests that larger integration uses the resources more efficiently, while considering uncertainty in resource availability shows larger cost to ensure meeting the demand. For the particular case considered, hydropower is widely used while biofuels are produced close to large populated regions when larger areas are evaluated; otherwise a more distributed solution is proposed. Reaching large fuel substitution is difficult at current biomass yields and technology state of development.