Scheduling optimization of wind–solar powered produced-water electrolysis for sustainable hydrogen blending into natural gas Chen Zhang PetroChina Shenzhen New Energy Research Institute Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China Solar-derived electricity from wind turbines and photovoltaic (PV) arrays can be routed to electrocatalytic water- splitting systems to generate carbon-free fuels. Here we couple the electrolysis treatment of oil-field produced water with on-site hydrogen generation and subsequent blending of the H 2 into the associated natural-gas stream, thereby upgrading the fossil resource with a renewable energy vector and lowering its life-cycle carbon intensity 1-2 . We construct an integrated process model that links forecast-based wind-solar power supply, battery and hydrogen storage, produced-water buffering, and a membrane-free electrolyzer specifically tolerant to organic- laden brines. A rolling-horizon mixed-integer nonlinear program minimizes total operating cost while maximizing renewable-power utilization subject to constraints on (i) electrolyzer power ramps and partial-load efficiency, (ii) battery state-of-charge limits, (iii) hydrogen blending ratios compatible with pipeline specifications, and (iv) daily produced-water treatment targets. Machine-learning wind and irradiance predictors feed the optimizer with hour- ahead generation scenarios. Case studies for a 10 MW wind-PV farm co-located with a medium-sized gas field show that the optimal schedule raises green-power utilization from 63 % (baseline) to 92 %, and enables stable 10 vol % H 2 injection without additional compression energy. Sensitivity analyses reveal that modest battery capacity (0.5 h rating) and hydrogen storage sized to three hours of peak electrolyzer output jointly provide the best techno-economic trade-off. The proposed strategy demonstrates a viable route to transform waste-water liabilities into low-carbon energy assets and illustrates how electrocatalysis can be embedded in solar-to-X pathways for sustainable fuel production. References 1. Akarsu, B., & Genç, M. S., 2022. Optimization of electricity and hydrogen production with hybrid renewable energy systems. Fuel, 324, 124465. 2. Dong, H., Shan, Z., Zhou, J., Xu, C., & Chen, W., 2023. Refined modeling and co-optimization of electric-hydrogen-thermal- gas integrated energy system with hybrid energy storage. Applied Energy, 351, 121834.
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