Heat pumping and renewable energy integration for decarbonizing brewery industry and district heating

The energy integration of brewery plants and urban agglomerations has many benefits in terms of rational energy use and reduced environmental impact, especially during scenarios of uncertain supply chain and volatile market prices. In fact, the diversification of the energy inputs along with the waste heat upgrading through the implementation of optimal energy integration systems become crucial for defining the new energy pathways towards a sustainable and robust energy security. The enhanced waste heat recovery and the residues upgrading also increase the revenues of the industrial energy systems, as they can be used to supply the energy demands of urban agglomerations. Yet, the combination of a large number of energy technologies and the time-varying energy demands calls for the application of a systematic approach capable of identifying the operating conditions and arrangements that minimize the energy resources consumption without impairing the financial feasibility. Thus, in this work, a mixed integer linear problem is solved using OSMOSE platform in order to determine the most profitable arrangement that meets supply and demand profiles of the industrial and urban systems when different energy conversion technologies are considered. More precisely, this analysis sheds light on the relevance of relying on a combination of renewable (e.g. solar, anaerobic digestion, heat pumps) and nonrenewable (e.g. natural gas-based) solutions to supply the time-varying electricity and heating demands of a beer factory that settles nearby a city, which also has variable energy demands. In this way, the optimal load distribution between components such as internal combustion engines and high temperature heat pumps can be achieved. The incremental capital cost between the typical and integrated brewery scenarios (5.3 M€/year) is offset by an incremental operating income, leading to an incremental total revenue of about 66.4 M€/year in the integrated scenario. As a result, more stringent environmental and economic scenarios, triggered by a shortage of fossil resources, could be endured thanks to the higher flexibility achieved using a set of renewable, and heat pump and power-to-gas technologies.