Simon-Pierre Le Clézio wins the ETH MAS Excellence Award
D-MTEC MAS student Simon-Pierre has received the ETH MAS Excellence Award, which recognizes the student with the best overall academic performance based on their Grade Point Average (GPA).
Simon-Pierre crowned his studies with a 6.00 Master's Thesis on "Power Purchase Agreement Volume and Hydrogen Storage Tank Capacity Optimisation for Power to Gas Project" in cooperation with Kanadevia Inova (then known as Hitachi Zosen Inova) and the POM Chair. The thesis has been supervised by Dr. Jasmina Holst and Prof. Dr. Torbjørn Netland at POM and Dr. Eng. Jaroslav Hemrle at Kanadevia Inova.
In his thesis, Simon-Pierre optimizes a Power-to-Gas plant which uses electrolysers to convert electrical power into hydrogen, which is then used to produce synthetic natural gas. Using a Python-based optimizer, Simon-Pierre evaluates three control strategies defined within a mathematical model. The most effective strategy was applied to maximize the net present value, with power purchase agreement volume and hydrogen storage tank capacity as optimization variables under the given project conditions. The identified strategy and plant sizing allow the business model to be optimized taking into account the entire plant life-cycle. Therefore, the thesis contributes to the energy transition toward a net-zero economy by providing a scalable solution for converting excess electricity generated from renewable energy sources into gas.
It was a pleasure working with Simon-Pierre, and we wish him great success in his future endeavors!
