A plan to decarbonise an industrial cluster formed by four companies (A, B, C and D), includes the following actions: - Using hydrogen boilers to produce industrial heat in furnaces, operating at 200oC and 1 atm. Consider stoichiometric amounts of oxygen. - Electrification of some heavy equipment (compressors, pumps) that currently utilises diesel, using electricity from wind farms. - Using solar panels to warm sanitary water used in the complex. The power and energy requirements during a nominal working week are summarised in Table 1. Even though companies have individual boilers, hydrogen is stored in two common tanks shared by the companies as pressurised gas at 300 atm and 25oC (and then pumped through a pipeline), with a hydrogen fractional conversion of 80%. For a nominal working week: 

(i) Calculate the energy needed by each company (individually) and also by the whole cluster, to provide heat and electrical power. 

(ii) Calculate the flow (inlet) of hydrogen required at the entrance of each boiler, and the overall volume of each of the two storage tanks (consider LHV of hydrogen). 

(iii) In order to mitigate the variability of wind energy, it is decided that each company installs lithium batteries to cover for 40% of their respective electrical daily load. Considering an operating voltage of 1.8 V, estimate the weight of each battery module.

(iv) Calculate/estimate the heat delivered by the solar panels, to warm sanitary water entering at 25oC and 1 atm. 

 

 

Table 1. Power and energy requirements for each company Company Heat requirement Daily time usage days Electrical power Daily time usage Days A B C D *aggregated energy 100 kW 8h 5 days 80 kW 8h 7 days 0 50 kW 4h 5 days 50 kW 8h 5 days 10 kW 8h 7 days 100 kWh/ day* 10 kW 8h 5 days Sanitary water Temperature Daily time usage Days Water flow @60C 24h 7 days 10 L/h @60C 24h 7 days 10 L/h @40C 24h 7 days 10 L/h @60oC 24h 7 days 10 L/h