Virtual Event
HILT CRC project webinar: Reliable green electricity and flexible operations for low-carbon heavy industry
February 25 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Virtual Event
This partners-only webinar brings together two complementary streams of work on reliable, affordable decarbonisation.
Associate Professor John Pye (ANU) will then share insights from RP2.008 Lost production and variability, which examines when to invest in storage versus designing plants to operate flexibly under variable renewable energy.
Dr Bin Lu (ANU) will present the latest results from RP2.014 Low-cost reliable green electricity supply for low-carbon heavy industry, including modelling that co-optimises generation, storage, transmission and demand flexibility to supply 24/7 low-carbon electricity to energy-intensive operations.
RP2.008
This work highlights the value of hybridising wind and solar, operating at high – but not 100% – utilisation, and lowering minimum operating threshold to reduce storage requirements and total costs, with additional synergies in hybridising renewables (e.g. photovoltaics-plus-wind).
RP2.014
Dr Lu will outline implications for scenarios spanning iron ore, alumina and cement in Western Australia, and highlight how partners can apply the algorithms, cost models and geographic information system data to test their own sites and assumptions. Key findings include:
- On-site solar photovoltaics (PV) and lithium-ion batteries can support continuous operations while delivering significant emission reductions.
- When the cost of emissions ($80–$420/t CO₂-e over time) suggested by the Australian Energy Market Commission are added to the cost of natural gas-fired power, solar and battery electricity systems offer a more cost-effective green alternative.
- Connecting to the grid and optimising load profiles can further lower electricity costs and enhance system reliability, supporting practical low-carbon transitions in heavy industry.
Matt Dixon, Process & Technical Manager at Adbri Cement, will provide an industry perspective.
NOTE: This webinar is exclusive to employees of HILT CRC Partner organisations. Register via the form below or contact admin@hiltcrc.com.au for the registration link.
Microsoft Event Terms and Conditions
SPEAKERS
Dr Bin Lu, Senior Research Fellow, Australian National University
Dr Bin Lu is a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian National University. He holds a PhD in Renewable Energy and a Master’s and a Bachelor’s degrees in Electrical Engineering. He was previously a senior electrical engineer with a decade of experience in electrical systems design and providing consulting services to government and industry. Dr Lu’s research interests include energy market modelling, renewable energy resource assessment, Geographic Information System application development, electrical system design and power system analysis.
In 2018 Dr Lu was awarded the Eureka Prize for Environmental Research with Professor Andrew Blakers and Dr Matthew Stocks from ANU’s 100% Renewable Energy Team.
Associate Professor John Pye, School of Engineering, Australian National University
John Pye John Pye is a Lecturer in the Solar Thermal group of the ANU Research School of Engineering. He has a background in mechanical engineering with an emphasis on thermal energy systems including system design, heat transfer, non-imaging optics, computational fluid dynamics, thermodynamics and simulation. His recent focus is on system-level design optimisation, heavy industrial decarbonisation, fluidised bed ironmaking and biomass gasification.
John leads HILT CRC Project RP2.008 as well as an ARENA-funded project on de-risking hydrogen ironmaking.
Matt Dixon, Process & Technical Manager, Adbri Cement
Matt Dixon is the Process & Technical Manager for the cement and lime division of Adbri. He leads the team responsible for major engineering capital projects, process optimisation, business improvement and sustainability. With a background in Chemical Engineering, he has held process engineering and production leadership roles within the Australian cement and lime industry spanning 20 years. Over this period he has been actively involved in the transition to more sustainable operations through a wide range of alternative fuel and industrial waste recovery initiatives.
Dr David Wong, Project Manager & Team Leader, CSIRO Energy Technologies group
David is a Brisbane-based energy-technologies specialist with a PhD in chemical and materials engineering, whose work ranges from technology scale-up and commercialisation in the hydrogen and low-carbon fuels sector to energy efficiency, emissions mitigation and benchmarking for industrial systems. He is currently Project Manager and Team Leader in the CSIRO Energy Technologies research program, based at the Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies (QCAT) site in Pullenvale. David was a lead author for the IPCC’s 2019 Methodology Report for emissions accounting for industrial aluminium and rare-earth metal smelting. He has led multi-party implementation projects that cut fluorinated greenhouse gases by 50% in trials at one major aluminium smelter and delivered energy savings of 100–150 kWh per tonne of metal two other smelters. He has over 30 publications, has advised industry and governmental bodies internationally, and has received awards from The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) and The International Committee for Study of Bauxite, Alumina & Aluminium (ICSOBA). He also trains global smelting professionals through long-running technical courses.
