Energy system optimization of natural gas hydrate mining platform

With the increasing demand for energy in various countries around the world, new types of energy are urgently needed to supplement the supply of conventional fossil fuels. Natural gas hydrate may become the main alternative energy source in the future due to its wide distribution and high energy density. Compared with traditional mining methods, CO2 replacement mining can store the greenhouse gas CO2 on the seabed, and the environmental benefits are more obvious; secondly, and for a natural gas hydrate offshore mining platform, the use of economical and reasonable energy equipment operation schemes can effectively reduce operating cost and improves economic benefits. Nowadays, with the continuous development of offshore wind power, the introduction of offshore wind power into the energy system of offshore platforms has attracted more and more attention. This paper took the energy system of a natural gas hydrate mining platform coupled with a methane reformer as an example. And the lowest total annual cost was set as the objective function to establish a new energy system optimization model under the consideration with and without wind energy access. The commercial solver GUROBI is used to solve the problem. After solving the problem, the best equipment operation plan can be found, and a detailed analysis of the energy system operation plan with wind energy access was conducted. The results showed that the total annual cost of the system after connecting to wind energy was reduced by 21.92%, and the consumption of natural gas was reduced by 35.41%. In addition, through sensitivity analysis, it was found that the optimal proportion of wind energy was affected by the price of natural gas. Based on the price of natural gas currently, the optimal proportion of wind energy was 49.56%. As the price of natural gas increased, the proportion of wind energy gradually increased. © 2022, Chemical Industry Press Co., Ltd. All right reserved.