(70a) Multi-Scale Modeling and Simulation of Hydrogen Production Processes

Because of the broad use of fossil fuels for energy generation, the world is experiencing serious environmental issues. As a result, lowering carbon emissions has become a pressing concern. In this context, hydrogen is receiving worldwide attention because of having huge potential such as becoming the leading energy carrier and its mobile/stationary power generating applications, to be part a solution of the aforementioned problem. A significant reduction on the production cost of hydrogen is required to reach the level of widespread use because this is the key factor for the further development and growth of the hydrogen economy.

Producing clean and cheap power by eliminating the economic and energy penalties requires either the development of new technologies or the improvement of existing energy systems based on sustainability standards and alternative fuels. However, the development of sustainable energy systems, do not negatively influence the economic and societal benefits, is the challenging global target of the energy sector. The incorporation of sustainability into the design of energy systems helps to attain this goal by avoiding or limiting negative impacts. However, monitoring sustainability performance and decision-making are critical and challenging processes for defining sustainability levels. Thus, the development of a methodological approach with proper sustainability indicators ensures the capability of gathering and abstracting the complex process operations and provides straightforward analysis and communication.

To sum up, to eliminate the existing problems and reach the global goals, the research activities need a robust, efficient, reliable methodological approach that spans multi-scale modeling and simulation (MMS)-based analysis, design, synthesis, and optimization. To bridge the gap between atomistic, mesoscopic, and macroscopic systems of interest, powerful computational techniques have been developed. As a result of this development, multi-scale systems engineering studies have produced significant outcomes for the oil, natural gas, and coal industries, as well as the renewable energy and environmental fields.

Thus, the main goal of this work is to identify the role of the multi-scale modeling and simulation (MMS) for hydrogen production processes. The work will consider the following points:

1. Definition of MMS and its principles.
2. Integration of MMS into hydrogen production processes.
3. Implementation of MMS to hydrogen production processes (Current status).
4. Projected status of MMS for hydrogen production processes.