Network optimization for sustainable integration of decentralized biogas production

Abstract

Facing the urgent need to mitigate anthropogenic climate change, reducing emissions from the combustion of natural gas has become imperative. This is particularly challenging in the steel or cement industry, where high-temperature heat is essential. A promising solution is substituting natural gas with biogas or hydrogen. The typically highly decentralized gas production presents a transportation challenge due to the high costs of pipeline networks. In this paper, we propose a novel Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) formulation to minimize the investment costs of pipeline networks. The pipeline network is modeled dendritically, allowing the efficient connection of multiple production plants and feed points. The topology of the network and the discrete pipe diameters are optimized simultaneously. A significant novelty is the use of a boolean matrix-vector multiplication n our formulation, allowing the usually non-linear formulation to be formulated linearly without loss of information. This enables hitherto unsolvable problems to be solved using highly efficient MILP solvers. The method is demonstrated using a case study with 37 biogas plants and seven feed points in Austria. The optimization results are the topology of the network and the pipe diameters at minimum specific costs of 3.24 €/(MW h). The results further highlight the economic efficiency of individual clusters, enabling decision-makers to implement step-by-step network expansion. The proposed method represents a novel contribution to optimizing the construction of gas transport infrastructure for biogas, offering potential applications in the broader context of renewable energy integration.