Techno-economic optimization model for polygeneration hybrid energy storage systems using biogas and batteries

Renewable energy polygeneration systems are a viable alternative to fossil-fuel based systems, but storage solutions may be necessary when aiming for high sustainability and autonomy. As each storage technology has different strengths and weaknesses, combinations of various storage solutions may lead to better techno-economic performance than singular approaches. To this purpose, an optimization model including a novel dispatch control strategy for a hybrid energy storage system (HESS) is proposed, which uses biogas for long-term and batteries for short-term storage. The model optimizes for minimum lifetime costs while exploiting the biomass resources with maximum efficiency and quantifying the additional solar and battery capacities needed. It is applied in a case study with an innovative biomass-based polygeneration system in a rural locality of Bolivia to serve electricity, potable water, and bio-slurry as fertilizer. The results indicate that even with maximized efficiency of the biomass resource conversion, large PV and battery capacities are necessary to satisfy the electricity demand of the locality. Despite of the high investment costs, the biomass-based polygeneration system would cost 22% less over the project lifetime than the fossil-fuel based reference system while being less dependent on fuel price changes. It would also reduce CO2-emissions by over 98%.
This research has been conducted in collaboration between UPC (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, funded through Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctoral Programme SELECT+, the support of which is gratefully acknowledged. The project STandUP for Energy provided resources for supervision of this study. AI acknowledges support from Spanish project MOET_BIA2016-77675-R.
Peer Reviewed
Postprint (published version)