Design framework for renewable chemical production systems with operating windows adapted to intermittent power supply

Abstract In the design of renewable chemical production systems (RCPS), a primary challenge is reconciling the mismatch between a stochastically fluctuating renewable energy supply and a stable chemical production demand. To address this, it is generally necessary to either deploy capital‐intensive energy storage systems to provide a consistent supply of feedstocks and utility or construct a flexible chemical production subsystem (FCPS) capable of adapting to renewable energy fluctuations. However, existing RCPS design methods often fail to yield optimal configurations because they neglect the simultaneous coupling between quantitative process flexibility constraints and time‐varying renewable energy supplies. This work proposes an integrated RCPS design framework that explicitly adapts the FCPS operating window to intermittent renewable energy profiles. Instead of isolated design of the FCPS, this framework maps the mathematical correlations between equipment design variables and the operational boundaries of the FCPS, embedding these relationships directly into the capacity sizing and scheduling optimization model of the entire RCPS. This enables the co‐optimization of the FCPS operating window, equipment design, and system‐wide capacity sizing under renewable energy fluctuations. The efficacy of the proposed framework is demonstrated through a case study of a wind‐driven renewable methanol production system (RMPS). Results indicate that equipment‐level physical constraints substantially restrict the feasible optimization space of the entire RMPS, underscoring the necessity of coordinating process equipment design with overall system planning. By precisely matching the operating window of the flexible methanol production subsystem (FMPS) with wind power fluctuations, the proposed co‐optimization method reduces the total annual cost (TAC) by 26.38% compared to conventional economy‐oriented design. By exploiting the intrinsic regulation capability of the process and maintaining high‐frequency scheduling of the energy storage units, the required capacity of capital‐intensive storage systems is substantially minimized. Furthermore, compared to a purely flexibility‐oriented design strategy, the co‐optimization framework reduces the TAC by 43.59%, because maximizing the FMPS operating window without source‐load coordination leads to severely oversized equipment and underutilized capacity. Overall, this work establishes a robust co‐optimization paradigm for RCPS design, leveraging process flexibility to seamlessly buffer renewable energy volatility.