Optimized Design of a Low Carbon Energy Hub: Minimizing Costs and Emissions with Carbon Tax

This paper presents a mathematical model for the optimal design of a low-carbon energy hub (EH) aimed at minimizing investment, operational, replacement and emission costs. The model is formulated as a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) problem and solved using the CBC solver within the PYOMO environment. Results identify the optimal capacities for EH components, and the impact of a carbon tax is evaluated. Findings indicate that with a carbon tax increase to $250/ton CO2, it becomes optimal to use of carbon capture technology and significantly reducing carbon emissions from 4,970 to 711 tons. The results underscore the importance of carbon tax in enabling cleaner EH configurations and the role of component flexibility in enhancing operational efficiency.