Multi-objective optimization of process industrial energy systems containing hydrogen energy

As a typical process industry, the iron and steel industry is an important pillar of global economic development, and its high output is accompanied by a large amount of energy consumption and carbon emissions. Aiming at the demand for energy efficiency improvement and low-carbon transformation of the iron and steel industry, this paper proposes an integrated energy system (IES) optimization method based on multifaceted hydrogen production and carbon capture technology. The synergistic optimization of the iron and steel production system and the energy system is achieved with the objective function of minimizing the total system operation cost and maximizing the energy utilization rate. The study used the ε-constraint method for multi-objective optimization solutions and designed four scenarios for system analysis. The optimization results show that the steel industry optimizes the steel production process by introducing hydrogen production from electricity and hydrogen production from by-product gas. Concurrent consideration of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology further improves system energy utilization by 18.58% and reduces total costs by 7.87%. Under a stepwise carbon trading mechanism, system operating costs decrease further. These results guide other energy-consuming process industries to save energy and increase efficiency, and operate in a low-carbon economy.