Exergy analysis-based operating parameter optimization for hydrogen energy hub

This paper focuses on the exergy analysis-based operation optimization of a hydrogen energy hub (HEH). The HEH integrates water electrolysis, biomass gasification, and natural gas reforming to achieve stable and green hydrogen. To address the limitation that conventional energy system modeling generally focuses solely on energy quantity while ignoring energy quality, the exergy principle is introduced to effectively capture available part of energy so as to comprehensively assess the HEH’s performance in terms of both quantity and quality of energy and provide guidelines for operation. In this regard, a complete assessment through energy and exergy analyses of the proposed system and all its subcomponents is performed to evaluate the exergy destruction of the system and its major subcomponents. Accordingly, an optimization model based on exergy analysis is proposed for HEH to determine the operating parameters to minimize the overall exergy destruction. To achieve substantial energy savings, the utilization of high-quality energy is further investigated, such as the generated power from the gas turbine. Case studies validate the effectiveness of the proposed exergy analysis-based HEH model, operating parameter optimization, and high-quality energy recycling in energy structure adjustment, exergy destruction reduction, and energy saving, respectively.