Overview

Hydrogen has a crucial role to play in the transition to net-zero, complementing and supporting higher penetrations of renewable electricity by providing load balancing, energy storage and sector coupling. Many hydrogen technologies are ready for deployment, but a challenge is establishing robust value chains to create and support strong and reliable supply of and demand for hydrogen.

Value chains are networks of processes or activities required to obtain raw materials and/or primary resources and convert them into useful products and services, along with logistics such as distribution, storage and inventory management. The Value Web Model (VWM) is a large mixed-integer optimisation model that can determine the best combinations of the many interdependent decisions regarding the planning, design, and operation of value chains.

We will present the applications of the VWM in determining the roles of hydrogen technologies, such as power-to-gas and hydrogen injection into gas grids, gas linepack, CCUS, underground storage (eg salt caverns, depleted oil and gas fields) etc in achieving net-zero.

We will discuss how value chain optimisation can be used to analyse energy policy scenarios, and outline on-going work on designing hydrogen value chains for energy-intensive industries (eg steel), aviation and shipping.

Speakers

Sheila Samsatli, Assistant Professor, University of Bath

Sheila is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Bath. She is an expert in developing large, high-fidelity optimisation models for whole-system value chains and energy systems to achieve net-zero. She is one of the 15 members of the Science Expert Group of the UK Government Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), providing independent scientific and technical support to the BEIS Chief Scientific Adviser. She is PI of various projects, funded by UKRI, the most recent of which is on designing hydrogen value chains for hard-to-decarbonise sectors.

Chris Quarton, Energy Engineer, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)

Chris is an Energy Engineer at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), where he provides engineering advice to policymakers on hydrogen and energy storage. This has included supporting the design and delivery of programmes under the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, the Low Carbon Hydrogen Standard, and the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund. Prior to this, Chris completed his PhD at the University of Bath with Dr Samsatli, where he studied the role of hydrogen in energy systems using value chain optimisation.

The material presented in this webinar has not been peer-reviewed. Any opinions are the presenters' own and do not necessarily represent those of IChemE or the Clean Energy Special Interest Group. The information is given in good faith but without any liability on the part of IChemE.

Webinar archive

This webinar is free of charge and open to all to attend, but if you wish to access the slides and a recording to replay on demand then you will need to be a member of the Clean Energy Special Interest Group.