Policy Considerations for Zero-Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Incentives: Case Study in Canada

Transportation accounts for more than 20% of the total Greenouse Gas (GHG) emissions in Canada. Switching from fossil fuels to more environmentally friendly energy sources and to Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEVs) is a promising option for future transportation but well to wheel emission and charging/refuelling patterns must also be considered. This paper investigates the barriers to and opportunities for electric charging and hydrogen refueling infrastructure incentives in Ontario, Canada and estimates the number of Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (ICEVs) that would be offset by infrastructure incentives. The paper also assesses the potential of electric and hybrid-electric powertrains to enable GHG reductions, explores the impact of the electricity supply mix for supporting zero-emission vehicles in different scenarios and studies the effect of the utility factor for PHEVs in Ontario. The authors compare the use of electric vehicle charging infrastructures and hydrogen refueling stations regarding overall GHG emission reductions for an infrastructure incentive funded by a 20-million-dollar government grant. The results suggest that this incentive can provide infrastructure that can offset around 9000 ICEVs vehicles using electricity charging infrastructure and 4000&ndash 8700 when using hydrogen refuelling stations. Having appropriate limitations and policy considerations for the potential 1.7 million electric-based vehicles that may be in use by 2024 in Ontario would result in 5&ndash 7 million tonne GHG avoidances in different scenarios, equivalent to the removal of 1&ndash 1.5 million ICEVs from the road. Document type: Articl

Transition of Future Energy System Infrastructure; through Power-to-Gas Pathways

Power-to-gas is a promising option for storing interment renewables, nuclear baseload power, and distributed energy and it is a novel concept for the transition to increased renewable content of current fuels with an ultimate goal of transition to a sustainable low-carbon future energy system that interconnects power, transportation sectors and thermal energy demand all together. The aim of this paper is to introduce different Power-to-gas “pathways”, including Power to Hydrogen, Power to Natural Gas End-users, Power to Renewable Content in Petroleum Fuel, Power to Power, Seasonal Energy Storage to Electricity, Power to Zero Emission Transportation, Power to Seasonal Storage for Transportation, Power to Micro grid, Power to Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) to Pipeline (“Methanation”), and Power to Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) to Seasonal Storage. In order to compare the different pathways, the review of key technologies of Power-to-gas systems are studied and the qualitative efficiency and benefits of each pathway is investigated from the technical points of view. Moreover, different Power-to-gas pathways are discussed as an energy policy option that can be implemented to transition towards a lower carbon economy for Ontario’s energy systems

Policy Considerations for Zero-Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Incentives: Case Study in Canada

Transportation accounts for more than 20% of the total Greenouse Gas (GHG) emissions in Canada. Switching from fossil fuels to more environmentally friendly energy sources and to Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEVs) is a promising option for future transportation but well to wheel emission and charging/refuelling patterns must also be considered. This paper investigates the barriers to and opportunities for electric charging and hydrogen refueling infrastructure incentives in Ontario, Canada and estimates the number of Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (ICEVs) that would be offset by infrastructure incentives. The paper also assesses the potential of electric and hybrid-electric powertrains to enable GHG reductions, explores the impact of the electricity supply mix for supporting zero-emission vehicles in different scenarios and studies the effect of the utility factor for PHEVs in Ontario. The authors compare the use of electric vehicle charging infrastructures and hydrogen refueling stations regarding overall GHG emission reductions for an infrastructure incentive funded by a 20-million-dollar government grant. The results suggest that this incentive can provide infrastructure that can offset around 9000 ICEVs vehicles using electricity charging infrastructure and 4000–8700 when using hydrogen refuelling stations. Having appropriate limitations and policy considerations for the potential 1.7 million electric-based vehicles that may be in use by 2024 in Ontario would result in 5–7 million tonne GHG avoidances in different scenarios, equivalent to the removal of 1–1.5 million ICEVs from the road

Utilizing Rooftop Renewable Energy Potential for Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Using Multi-Energy Hub Approach

Electric vehicles (EV) have the potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions. Yet, the current electric vehicle charging infrastructure utilizes electricity generated from non-renewable sources. In this study, the rooftop area of structures is analyzed to assess electricity that can be generated through solar- and wind-based technologies. Consequently, planning an electric vehicle charging infrastructure that is powered through ‘clean’ energy sources is presented. We developed an optimal modeling framework for the consideration of Renewable Energy Technologies (RET) along with EV infrastructure. After examining the level of technology, a MATLAB image segmentation technique was used to assess the available rooftop area. In this study, two competitive objectives including the economic cost of the system and CO2 emissions are considered. Three scenarios are examined to assess the potential of RET to meet the EV demand along with the Abu Dhabi city one while considering the life-cycle emission of RET and EV systems. When meeting only EV demand through Renewable Energy Technologies (RET), about 187 ktonnes CO2 was reduced annually. On the other hand, the best economic option was still to utilize grid-connected electricity, yielding about 2.24 Mt CO2 annually. In the scenario of meeting both 10% EV demand and all Abu Dhabi city electricity demand using RE, wind-based technology is only able to meet around 3%. Analysis carried out by studying EV penetration demonstrated the preference of using level 2 AC home chargers compared to other ones. When the EV penetration exceeds 25%, preference was observed for level 2 (AC public 3ϕ) chargers

Utilizing Rooftop Renewable Energy Potential for Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Using Multi-Energy Hub Approach

Electric vehicles (EV) have the potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions. Yet, the current electric vehicle charging infrastructure utilizes electricity generated from non-renewable sources. In this study, the rooftop area of structures is analyzed to assess electricity that can be generated through solar- and wind-based technologies. Consequently, planning an electric vehicle charging infrastructure that is powered through ‘clean’ energy sources is presented. We developed an optimal modeling framework for the consideration of Renewable Energy Technologies (RET) along with EV infrastructure. After examining the level of technology, a MATLAB image segmentation technique was used to assess the available rooftop area. In this study, two competitive objectives including the economic cost of the system and CO2 emissions are considered. Three scenarios are examined to assess the potential of RET to meet the EV demand along with the Abu Dhabi city one while considering the life-cycle emission of RET and EV systems. When meeting only EV demand through Renewable Energy Technologies (RET), about 187 ktonnes CO2 was reduced annually. On the other hand, the best economic option was still to utilize grid-connected electricity, yielding about 2.24 Mt CO2 annually. In the scenario of meeting both 10% EV demand and all Abu Dhabi city electricity demand using RE, wind-based technology is only able to meet around 3%. Analysis carried out by studying EV penetration demonstrated the preference of using level 2 AC home chargers compared to other ones. When the EV penetration exceeds 25%, preference was observed for level 2 (AC public 3ϕ) chargers

Modeling and optimization of energy hubs : a comprehensive review

The concept of energy hubs has grown in prominence as a part of future energy systems, driven by the spread of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) and the inception of the smart grid. This paper systematically reviews 200 articles about energy hubs, published from 2007 to 2017, and summarizes them based on their modeling approach, planning and operation, economic and environmental considerations, and energy hub applications. The common applications of energy hubs are considered, such as distributed energy resources, the consideration of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs), and the hydrogen economy. This paper examines modeling approaches towards energy hubs, including storage and its network models; it mentions some of the optimization strategies used to tackle the efficient operation and control of energy hubs. The novelty of this work lies in the classification of research papers related to energy hubs, the development of a generic framework for modeling these multiple energy flow carriers with storage and network considerations, and the provision of solution techniques in line with energy hub optimization.Published versio

Optimal design of large-scale solar-aided hydrogen production process via machine learning based optimisation framework

Hydrogen is an important energy carrier in the transportation sector and an essential industrial feedstock for petroleum refineries, methanol, and ammonia production. Renewable energy sources, especially solar energy have been investigated for large-scale hydrogen production in thermochemical, electrochemical, or photochemical manners due to considerable greenhouse gas emissions from the conventional steam reforming of natural gas and oil-based feedstock. The solar steam methane reforming using molten salt (SSMR-MS) is superior due to its unlimited operation hours and lower total annualized cost (TAC). In this work, we extend the existing optimisation framework for optimal design of SSMR-MS in which machine learning techniques are employed to describe the relationship between solar-related cost and molten salt heat duty and establish relationships of TAC, hydrogen production rate and molten salt heat duty with independent input variables in the whole flowsheet based on 18,619 sample points generated using the Latin hypercube sampling technique. A hybrid global optimisation algorithm is adopted to optimise the developed model and generate the optimal design, which is validated in SAM and Aspen Plus V8.8. The computational results demonstrate that a significant reduction in TAC by 14.9 % similar to 15.1 %, and CO2 emissions by 4.4 % similar to 5.2 % can be achieved compared to the existing SSMR-MS. The lowest Levelized cost of Hydrogen Production is 2.4 $kg(-1) which is reduced by around 17.2$ kg(-1)

Power-to-Gas Implementation for a Polygeneration System in Southwestern Ontario

Canada has stockpiles of waste petroleum coke, a high carbon waste product leftover from oil production with little positive market value. A polygeneration process is proposed which implements “power-to-gas” technology, through the use of electrolysis and surplus grid electricity, to use waste petroleum coke and biomass to create a carbon monoxide-rich stream after gasification, which is then converted into a portfolio of value-added products with the addition of hydrogen. A model implementing mixed-integer linear programming integrates power-to-gas technology and AspenPlus simulates the polygeneration process. The downstream production rates are selected using particle swarm optimization. When comparing 100% electrolysis vs. 100% steam reforming as a source of hydrogen production, electrolysis provides a larger net present value due to the carbon pricing introduced in Canada and the cost reduction from removal of the air separation unit by using the oxygen from the electrolysers. The optimal percent of hydrogen produced from electrolysis is about 82% with a hydrogen input of 7600 kg/h. The maximum net present value is $332 M when over 75$203 M when the dimethyl ether is capped at 50% production. The polygeneration plant is an example of green technology used to environmentally process Canada’s petroleum coke