An Overview of the Waste-To-Energy System Simulation (Wesys) Model
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An Overview of the Waste-to-Energy System Simulation (WESyS) Model Annika Eberle,1 Irina Tsiryapkina,1 Steve Peterson,2 Laura Vimmerstedt,1 Dylan Hettinger,1 and Daniel Inman1 1 National Renewable Energy Laboratory 2 Lexidyne, LLC NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy Technical Report Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy NREL/TP-6A20-77166 Operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC October 2020 This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications. Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308 An Overview of the Waste-to-Energy System Simulation (WESyS) Model Annika Eberle,1 Irina Tsiryapkina,1 Steve Peterson,2 Laura Vimmerstedt,1 Dylan Hettinger,1 and Daniel Inman1 1 National Renewable Energy Laboratory 2 Lexidyne, LLC Suggested Citation Eberle, Annika, Irina Tsiryapkina, Steve Peterson, Laura Vimmerstedt, Dylan Hettinger, and Daniel Inman. 2020. An Overview of the Waste-to-Energy System Simulation (WESyS) Model. Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory. NREL/TP-6A20-77166. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy21osti/77166.pdf. NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy Technical Report Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy NREL/TP-6A20-77166 Operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC October 2020 This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications. 15013 Denver West Parkway Golden, CO 80401 Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308 303-275-3000 • www.nrel.gov NOTICE This work was authored in part by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, operated by Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. Funding provided by U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the U.S. Government. This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications. U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reports produced after 1991 and a growing number of pre-1991 documents are available free via www.OSTI.gov. Cover Photos by Dennis Schroeder: (clockwise, left to right) NREL 51934, NREL 45897, NREL 42160, NREL 45891, NREL 48097, NREL 46526. NREL prints on paper that contains recycled content. Acknowledgments This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC36- 08GO28308 with Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, the Manager and Operator of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Bioenergy Technologies Office. We thank representatives of several organizations, including Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Waste Management, Inc., California Air Resources Board, Mainstream Engineering, The Water Research Foundation, HDR Inc., and Brown and Caldwell, for providing helpful comments and suggestions about the model. We also thank Liz Craig, Brian Bush, Corey Peck, Jake Jacobson, Amy Schwab, and Mike Meshek for their review and refinement of this report and the supporting figures. The views and opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe upon privately owned rights. iii This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory at www.nrel.gov/publications. List of Acronyms and Abbreviations Btu British thermal units CA California CAFO concentrated animal feeding operation CF capture and flare CH4 methane CHP combined heat and power CNG compressed natural gas DOC degradable organic content DOE U.S. Department of Energy EPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency FCI fixed capital investment GJ gigajoule HTL hydrothermal liquefaction LCFS Low Carbon Fuel Standard (California) LF landfill LMOP Landfill Methane Outreach Program MAX maximum MFSP minimum fuel selling price MGD million gallons per day MJ megajoule MSW municipal solid waste NoWTE no waste-to-energy NPV net present value NREL National Renewable Energy Laboratory Op Cost operating costs PC precommercial PNG pipeline natural gas POTW publicly owned treatment works PR progress ratio PTC production tax credit REC renewable energy certificate RFS renewable fuel standard RGS renewable gas standard RIN renewable identification number RNG renewable natural gas ROTUS rest of the United States SB 1383 Senate Bill No. 1383 (California) USD U.S. dollars WESyS Waste-to-Energy System Simulation WTE waste-to-energy iv This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory at www.nrel.gov/publications. Executive Summary The leveraging of waste streams for energy and chemical production could add revenue to waste disposal operations, and it presents opportunities for addressing a variety of economic and environmental objectives at the local, state, and national levels. The Waste-to-Energy System Simulation (WESyS) model is a system dynamics model that was created to simulate the development of the U.S. waste-to-energy industry over time. For each of the three primary waste resources modeled (landfills, concentrated animal feeding operations, and publicly owned treatment works), WESyS simulates technically feasible scenarios for use of the waste, including direct conversion to fuels, and anaerobic digestion followed by flaring, electricity generation, combined heat and power, cleanup and compression to compressed natural gas, and cleanup and injection into an existing pipeline. The model allows users to explore numerous plausible future scenarios for the development of the U.S. waste-to-energy industry. This report provides an overview of the WESyS model and documents the key assumptions, equations, and data sources used to create the model. v This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory at www.nrel.gov/publications. Table of Contents 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background on System Dynamics ................................................................................................ 2 1.2 Overview of WESyS ..................................................................................................................... 3 2 WESyS Architecture ............................................................................................................................. 6 3 WESyS Modules.................................................................................................................................... 8 3.1 Resource Modules ......................................................................................................................... 8 3.1.1 Investment Decisions and Techno-Economics ............................................................... 10 3.1.2 Representation of Current Legislation and Regulations ................................................. 14 3.1.3 Landfill-Specific Logic .................................................................................................. 17 3.1.4 Resource Initializations .................................................................................................. 17 3.2 Global Modules ........................................................................................................................... 19 3.2.1 Global Inputs .................................................................................................................. 20 3.2.2 Global Outputs ............................................................................................................... 23 4 Sample Outputs .................................................................................................................................. 25 5 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 27 References ................................................................................................................................................. 28 Appendix. Default Cost Data .................................................................................................................... 30 vi This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory at www.nrel.gov/publications. List of Figures Figure 1. Simplified diagram showing stocks, a flow, and feedback loop ................................................... 2 Figure 2. Energy production options in WESyS ........................................................................................... 4 Figure 3. Modules within WESyS ................................................................................................................ 6 Figure 4. Investment decision process in WESyS ........................................................................................ 7 Figure 5. Generalized structure used