energy supply of natural gas liquefaction process using renewable energy sources: technical, economic and environmental study

This study examines the feasibility of using renewable energy sources to power a natural gas liquefaction unit in bandar abbas, iran. the liquefaction process is simulated using aspen hysys software to determine the energy consumption. three scenarios for supplying the required energy are then defined and modeled using homer pro software: 1) using a gas power plant (gpp), 2) using solar and wind energy (swpp), and 3) using a hybrid system (swgpp). the results show that for the swgpp scenario, the optimal solution is to only use gpp due to insufficient solar and wind potential in the region and the low cost of natural gas. on the other hand, considering the global prices of natural gas optimal condition is to use 39% renewable energy with natural gas power plants. comparing the gpp and swpp scenarios, using renewable energy eliminates emissions. still, it is significantly more expensive across all economic metrics, including net present cost (3.22 times higher), cost of energy (4.56 times higher), operating costs (1.16 times higher), maintenance costs (1.53 times higher), and required initial capital (49.8 times higher). the higher costs are due to the need for a large number of photovoltaic panels and wind turbines to compensate for the relatively low solar and wind potential compared to the energy demands of the liquefaction process. overall, while using renewable energy for this application provides environmental benefits, it is not currently economically competitive with conventional gas-powered generation in this region. the obtained results for the third scenario show that considering natural gas prices in iran, the potential of solar and wind energy in this city is not enough to compete with traditional energy from an economic point of view. considering the global price of natural gas, the optimal system is different and the use of a hybrid of 39% renewable and 61% non-renewable system for energy supply has been introduced as the optimal mode. the low price of fossil fuel in iran, causes renewable energy to lose its competitive advantage and does not have economic justification in any of the regions, even in regions that have high solar energy potential.