PhD dissertation: Beyond the energy transition - Modelling of integrated multi-energy systems for a sustainable industrial transformation

For our society's endeavour of working towards a greener future, the energy transition is a necessary step but not sufficient on its own. The more progress is made in this domain, the more obvious it becomes how much work still lies beyond the energy transition. A prime example is the decarbonisation of industries that produce crucial products for everyday life, e.g. steel, cement, or fertilisers. These industries are energy-intensive and, as such, depend on the energy transition but also produce a lot of non-energy-related emissions.

The latter has to be tackled by the innovation of their production processes. Making the right choices at this intersection of energy transition and industrial decarbonisation is particularly hard due to the mutual dependency of those topics. Despite the apparent need to study this intersection, the body of knowledge to date is relatively small.

This thesis aims to act as a catalyst for research in this domain by providing a modelling toolbox suited for the application to industrial energy systems. It contains (i) the technology models to simulate and optimise industrial energy systems, (ii) the methodologies to do so in a computationally efficient manner, (iii) exemplary case studies with a detailed description of the methodology as a guideline for other case studies, and (iv) insights into the role of hydrogen and carbon capture.