Abstract
For the efficient conversion of fossil-based process energy to renewable energies such as solar and wind, the energy demand of biomass processing must be flexibly adjustable to this fluctuating electricity supply. Adjusting a system's power demand to follow the current power generation is commonly referred to as demand side management (DSM).
One option to increase the flexibility of continuously operated processes entails oversizing the process. DSM strategies result in shutting down a process, and thus electricity being purchased at times of low prices, which can, in turn, lead to monetary benefits. From an economic point of view, this, however, leads to an increase in investment and, thus capital costs. Implementing DSM only serves an economic purpose if these monetary benefits exceed the increase in capital costs. The main goal of this contribution is to present the results of a study on the economic DSM potential for an optimally oversized industrial process. The economic DSM potential for a specific process within a biomethane production plant is calculated in a biorefinery case study. The main results show that in terms of oversizing processes for DSM purposes, a lower value of 100 % was found using dynamic optimization compared to 209.8 % using steady-state optimization. Due to the more realistic assumptions in dynamic optimization, these values are more realizable in real plants.
