Sustainable airports: green energy solutions to achieve carbon neutrality

Alruwaili, Mohammed 2022. Sustainable airports: green energy solutions to achieve carbon neutrality. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

The decarbonisation of the aviation sector to cut its contribution to climate change due to various emission sources and the high cost of the proposed green solutions is a challenging goal. As the backbone of the aviation industry, airports have been under pressure to cut their direct and indirect emissions. This thesis investigates the feasibility of innovative solutions to boost the adaptation of green energy technologies for achieving carbon neutrality and sustainable airports. The reduction of indirect airport emissions related to electricity purchases by deploying renewable energy resources is investigated in this thesis. As a hard-to-abate sector, green hydrogen is expected to play a key role in the aviation industry on the road to carbon neutrality. As such, the economic benefits of a hybrid, renewable-based system are analysed. The novelty of this work is that no existing studies utilise HOMER Pro for the techno-economic evaluation of airport microgrids. The results show that the use of on-site green hydrogen production using solar PV by deploying a small power-to-hydrogen-to-power system provides cost-effective benefits. Electricity is the primary artery of the airport transition towards carbon neutrality. Hence, the adaptation of microgrids to enhance airport power resilience is modelled considering a civilian airport with an uptake level of electric ground support equipment (EGSE) under different power outage criteria. This research proposes an optimisation model to find the optimal economic dispatch of a resilient microgrid. This novel work evaluates the resiliency of airport microgrids by employing XENDEE, which has not been previously studied. Very few studies in the literature have been conducted on the topic of airport microgrids. The results show that the resilient microgrid can sustain up to 1 day of power outages and offer annual operating cost savings of 20–22%. As the uptake level of EGSE is expected to increase in the near future, its potential benefits should be explored at different levels of networks, including the national grid, distribution, and customer. An optimisation algorithm is developed to demonstrate EGSE benefits at the end-user level by flattening the airport load profile using airport electricity demand and flight schedule data. This type of work has not been previously presented. The results show that an EGSE fleet with vehicle-to-building (V2B) capability enhances the load factor to 79% and improves the valley-to-peak ratio to 45%. The grid-level benefits of EGSE with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capability to participate in the future energy market are also explored. As such, an optimisation model for EGSE frequency response provision through an aggregator is developed using passenger flight schedules and ancillary service market data. This novel method, which has not been previously presented, allows EGSE owners and aggregators to participate in ancillary services markets and make profits. The results show that an EGSE aggregator can make $4,700/day by providing frequency regulation services. The additional load from EGSE fleet charging in the low-voltage distribution network is accommodated by distribution transformers. The dynamic loading of the distribution transformers that power an airport is introduced to mitigate the impact of the EGSE charging requirements on the transformer’s lifetime. The dynamic model is formulated to optimise the EGSE fleet charging using the IEC 60076-7 thermal loading guide and flight schedule data. The key benefits of transformer dynamic loading to distribution networks and airport operators are the enhancement of transformer loading to minimise EGSE impact, allowing for higher levels of EGSE uptake. This novel approach has not previously been presented in the existing literature. The results show that the transformer dynamic loading approach reduces the EGSE charging impact by 50% for the simulated cases.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Engineering
Uncontrolled Keywords:	1). Airports 2). Sustainability 3). Electric Ground Support Equipment 4). Airports Electrification 5). Demand Response 6). Distributed Energy Resources
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	22 June 2023
Last Modified:	22 Jun 2024 01:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/160509

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