Design optimization of oxygen-fuel combustion system of municipal solid waste driven by electrolytic oxygen production from renewable energy

Under the background of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, this work proposes a novel municipal solid waste (MSW) oxygen-fuel combustion system driven by electrolytic oxygen production from renewable energy. Then, the corresponding mathematical model is established, which includes the supply sub-model related to the renewable energy generation process and water electrolysis process, the storage sub-model with battery and oxygen tank, and the demand sub-model of the oxygen-fuel combustion process, featuring a mixed integer linear programming one. To describe in-out characteristics of the MSW oxygen-fuel combustion system, two methods with pre-defined parameters and simulation models, are adopted respectively in this paper. Taking the minimum total cost of the system as an optimization target, the configuration scheme and operating strategy of the oxygen-fuel combustion system can be obtained. An example of an MSW plant coupled with a photovoltaic (PV) system is adopted as a case study to verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods. Results show that the design schemes can be determined by two proposed methods, but the one with simulation models superiors to describe the in-out performance of the MSW oxygen-fuel combustion system. What's more, the effects of the intrinsic intermittence and fluctuation of renewable energy on the MSW oxygen-fuel combustion process are investigated comprehensively, by analyzing the operation scheme of the proposed system. Finally, the environmental impacts of the MSW oxygen-fuel combustion system driven by electrolytic oxygen production from renewable energy are evaluated.