Supply Chain, Techno-economic Analysis, Infrastructure, and Policy
Focus – Driving technology adoption to create a sustainable supply chain and curb greenhouse gas emissions through techno-economic analysis, infrastructure development, and policy advancement.
Technical Thrusts
- Applying a combination of mathematical modeling and statistical and analytical techniques, such as game theory, optimization, data analysis, and forecasting, to study the interactions among green policies, environmental issues, and operational challenges.
- Overseeing the Global H2 Project Database project, in collaboration with the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies, to assess the H2 market and infrastructure, including the necessary cost and investment commitment needed to make H2 commercially feasible in several applications. The UT team is gathering data and evidence from Asia and North America about how the industry has been progressing.
- Integrating H2 into the current gas infrastructure, through a network-equilibrium model, to demonstrate and plan the pathway of H2 transportation, production, and storage along the existing gas infrastructure system and achieve optimal cost and operational efficiency. Currently a conceptual model for both European and Lower 48 U.S. markets is nearing completion, for use by industry experts and companies.
- Exploring how technology development, environmental policy, and other potential drivers may impact the growth of the Texas Gulf Coast’s H2 infrastructure. A techno-economic model will be developed that describes the existing infrastructure and makes capacity investment decisions based on economic, environmental, and other inputs.
- Identifying cross-sectoral connections between electricity and H2 systems to build computational and techno-economic models of these technologies. Electrolyzers, fuel cells, H2-fueled combustion turbines, and other technologies connect the electricity and H2 infrastructures and could enable electricity benefits—e.g., flexible demand, reliability services, long-term storage, and carbon-free thermal generation—and H2 benefits—e.g., carbon-free H2 generation.
- Examining the role of H2 to enable zero emissions vehicles and to decarbonize the energy and industrial sectors. In order for Texas to reach it’s potential in leveraging inherent advantages in renewables and H2, policies need to be identified and implemented to promote these advantages and leverage industrial capabilities.
- Techno-economic analysis of green H2 to contribute to Texas’ decarbonization goals and meet transportation/building energy needs. Analyses include the potential for H2 in the U.S. light-duty vehicle sector, tradeoffs in siting H2 generation at the electricity supply or H2 demand site, and estimation of how residential houses in Austin, TX would utilize on-site H2 fuel cells.
- Technical analysis, techno-economic analysis, and concepts for H2 production from landfill and oilfield flared gas, carbon sequestration associated with H2 production, and green H2 production and utilization via solar/wind.
Research Leaders
Shadi Goodarzi, Thrust 1
Ning Lin, Thrust 2, 3
Thomas Deetjen, Thrusts 4, 5
Alan C. Lloyd, Thrust 6
Michael Webber, Thrust 7
Vaibhav Bahadur, Thrust 8
