Performance analysis and socio-enviro-economic feasibility study of a new hybrid energy system-based decarbonization approach for coal mine sites

Jeffrey Dankwa Ampah; Chao Jin; Ephraim Bonah Agyekum; Sandylove Afrane; Zhenlong Geng; Humphrey Adun; Abdulfatah Abdu Yusuf; Haifeng Liu; Olusola Bamisile

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158820

Performance analysis and socio-enviro-economic feasibility study of a new hybrid energy system-based decarbonization approach for coal mine sites

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Jan 1:854:158820. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158820. Epub 2022 Sep 16.

Authors

Jeffrey Dankwa Ampah¹, Chao Jin², Ephraim Bonah Agyekum³, Sandylove Afrane¹, Zhenlong Geng¹, Humphrey Adun⁴, Abdulfatah Abdu Yusuf⁵, Haifeng Liu⁶, Olusola Bamisile⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, 300072 Tianjin, China.
² School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, 300072 Tianjin, China. Electronic address: jinchao@tju.edu.cn.
³ Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia Boris Yeltsin 620002, 19 Mira Street, Ekaterinburg, Department of Nuclear and Renewable Energy, Russia.
⁴ Energy Systems Engineering Department, Cyprus International University, Haspolat-Lefkosa, Mersin 10, Turkey.
⁵ Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Liberia, 76X3+MX3, Monrovia, Liberia.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Engines, Tianjin University, 300072 Tianjin, China. Electronic address: haifengliu@tju.edu.cn.
⁷ Sichuan Industrial Internet Intelligent Monitoring and Application Engineering Research Center, Chengdu University of Technology, Sichuan 610059, China.

PMID: 36116668
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158820

Abstract

The mining sector contributes to 4-7 % of global GHG emissions, of which 1 % are from scope 1 and scope 2 emissions, caused by operations such as electricity consumption used for the mining process. China heavily relies on coal for power generation, and the energy demand for coal production in the country is primarily met by fossil-based electricity. In addition, the transportation of the mined coal to various destinations within the supply chain is achieved by fossil fuel-powered transport systems. These daily activities of the Chinese coal sector further compound foreign and domestic pressure on China to limit its carbon emissions. The current study attempts to provide a solution to the situation by investigating the feasibility of adopting renewable energy sources for the process of coal mining in Northern China. The selected coal mine is one out of 643 coal mines in Shanxi Province, with a combined production capacity of ∼1 billion tonnes of coal per annum. In addition, the excess electricity generated has been designated to produce hydrogen on-site as a refueling source for hydrogen fuelled-trucks to replace diesel fuelled-trucks in transporting coal. The analysis has been completed using HOMER Pro software, and the key contributions are summarized as follows. 4 different scenarios comprising of standalone solar photovoltaic, wind turbine, and diesel generator have been designed in the current study to serve a daily load of 215 MWh and 2.4 t of electricity for coal mining and hydrogen for transport of 100 % of the mined coal by road using hydrogen fuel cell trucks, respectively. A technical, economic, environmental, and social feasibility analysis have been investigated in the present work. A grid-tied system is subsequently added to the base scenario and the results are compared against the base system in an attempt to identify the more feasible option between the two systems. Also, a sensitivity analysis has been conducted to reveal the performance of the base system amidst future uncertainties. The findings in the current work could prove beneficial to China's quest to reach carbon peak by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

Keywords: Carbon emissions; Coal mining; HOMER optimization; Hydrogen fuel; Levelized cost of energy; Renewable energy.