Compact gasification and synthesis for flexible production of transport fuels and heat

Summary of FLEXCHX and COMSYN webinar

Techno-Economic Analysis of a Flexible Process Concept for the Production of Transport Fuels and Heat from Biomass and Renewable Electricity

Different processes have been proposed to meet the global need for renewable fuel. The Biomass to Liquid process (BtL) converts biomass via the Fischer-Tropsch route to hydrocarbon chains that can be refined to transport fuel. With the addition of electrolytic hydrogen to the Power and Biomass to Liquid process (PBtL), the carbon efficiency can be increased relative to the BtL process. It was shown in previous studies that the PBtL concept has an economic edge over BtL when cheap electricity is available to maximize the fuel yield. In this study, a techno-economic analysis is conducted for a hybrid process concept which can switch operation modes from electrolysis enhanced to only biomass conversion. In case studies the effect of the Fischer-Tropsch conversion, H2/CO ratio of the Fischer-Tropsch feed and the biomass feed rate in the electrolysis enhanced mode are analyzed. Every process configuration is modeled based on experimentally validated unit models from literature in the commercial software Aspen Plus and analyzed using DLR’s software tool TEPET. For a 200 MWth biomass input plant, production costs of 1.08 €2019/L for the hybrid concept with a carbon efficiency of 53.3% compared to 0.66 €2019/L for BtL with 35.4% and 1 €2019/L for PBtL with 61.1% were found based on the Finnish day-ahead market for the base case. The net production cost for the hybrid concept can be decreased by 0.07 €2019/L when a Fischer-Tropsch H2/CO ratio of 1.6 instead of 2.05 is used

Opportunities and Challenges for Electro-Fuels in Future Aviation

1. Sustainable fuels are required to meet the aviation contribution towards Europe’s climate obligations 2. GHG abatement costs shall be the key decision criteria for large scale SAF deployment, PBtL: < 1.000 €/tCO2-eq. achievable 3. Europe can largely decarbonize its aviation utilizing biomass residues, investing in renewable power 4. PtX will only cover a minor portion of current crude oil consumption 5. Preventing + Shifting + Replacing of transport by REGULATION require

PtX opportunities and challenges for aviation and beyond - Technical, economic and ecologic evaluation from aviation point of view

Conclusions: PtX opportunities and challenges for aviation and beyond? Opportunity 1: Promised enormous increase in renewable energy generation • German coalition agreement (government): +300 - 350 TWh renewable electricity by 2030 • New RE capacity implementation: 35 - 40 TWh p.a.? • 10 % for aviation: 3.5 – 4.0 TWh -> +100 - 200 kt/a SAF addition each year? Opportunity 2: Promised short term SAF pull (aviation industry) and push (expected deployment policies) • Immediate utilization of >: e.g. stop burning industrial H2, explore cheap green carbon Challenge 1: underdeveloped European SAF industry (compared to GWP saving request) • Mandatory: reliable, permanent market for SAF – e.g., year-on-year growth rate of blending until 2030? • Investor certainty crucial Promise 100 % SAF within 3 decades? - Fair share: 33 % supply in this decade

TECHNICAL, ECONOMIC AND ECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF EUROPEAN SUSTAINABLE AVIATION FUELS (SAF) PRODUCTION

Ergebnisse der standardisierten techno-ökonomisch-ökologischen Analyse der Bewertung alternativer Kraftstoffe werden am Beispiel von Fischer-Tropsch Luftfahrttreibstoffen aus Biomasse, Strom und CO2 gezeigt. Für die europäische Luftfahrtindustrie wurde eine Road-map erarbeitet, um unter Einsatz weitestgehend nachhaltiger Einsatzstoffe signifikante Mengen von SAF zu erzeugen. Produktionskosten und Treibhausgaspotenzial der Kraftstoffe werden regional ermittelt

Can e-fuels replace fossil fuels for a future global sustainable transport?

The use of synthetic fuels is an attractive solution to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions where electrification proves to be challenging or too cost intensive. Combining the use of renewable electricity to produce electrolytic hydrogen and sustainable carbon (e.g. from non-crop-based biomass) offers a promising route for large-scale, low carbon power-to-X-products (PtX). While the process technology is pretty mature, the energy efficiency, the production costs, the GHG savings and the possible production capacity is a part of the political debate. Rigorous chemical process simulation using standard software like Aspen Plus with experimentally validated unit performance data is the basis to get an exact representation of the entire process. Chemical engineering cost estimation is applied to predict net production costs (NPC) of PtX-products for transport fuels. A life cycle assessment (LCA) is performed with the open source framework Brightway2 using the same data set of rigorous process simulation. Costs and GWP where calculated using the in-house tool Techno-Economic Process Evaluation Tool (TEPET)

E-FUEL OPTIONS IN PRIVATE TRANSPORT, AVIATION AND SHIPPING

E-Fuel options in private transport, aviation and shipping - Techno economic and environmental assessmen

Application of techno economic and ecological process assessment for cost estimation of renewable fuels

In der Prozessverfahrenstechnik sind Kostenschätzungen für Neuanlagen in unterschiedlichen Genauigkeitsstufen üblich und erforderlich für abgestufte Entscheidungsprozesse zur Mittelfreigabe bis zur Errichtung einer Anlage. Diese gelten für Großanlagen bekannter Technologie (technology readiness level 9), werden allerdings auch für Neuanlagen und die Kostenprognose von Entwicklungsprojekten eingesetzt. In der Wissenschaft ist eine Bewertung bis zum sogenannten preliminary estimate (Class 4) basierend auf begrenzten Kostendaten und Verfahrensdetails möglich, teilweise mit Anteilen eines sogenannten budgeting estimate (Class 3), wenn konkrete Kostendaten über wesentliche Prozessstufen vorliegen. Am DLR wurde diese Methode standardisiert und im Software-Werkzeug TEPET automatisiert, um den Einfluss von Änderungen im Prozessdesign auf die zu erwartenden Produktionskosten auf Basis der Fließbildsimulation zu ermitteln. Methodik und Software-Werkzeug werden im Vortrag erläutert. Die vielfältigen Nutzungsmöglichkeiten der Ergebnisse der techno-ökonomischen Analyse werden anhand von Beispielen präsentiert

Techno-economic and environmental assessment of CCU options

If the transport sector, especially aviation, shipping and heavy load, will continue to rely on liquid fuels, carbon-based fuels might be unavoidable for the foreseeable time. With countless options of sustainable fuels, feedstocks and production routes, its difficult to determine preferences of one over the others. We present a methodology to assess these options fair and transparent simultaneously technically, economically as well as environmentally for comparison and selection. Because aviation is one of the fastest growing sectors in terms of CO2 emissions, the regulatory initiative ReFuelEU Aviation was introduced to mitigate the impact of aviation on the environment. Significantly reduced GHG emissions and lower abatement costs require technological innovations of Power-to-liquids, Biomass-to-liquids and Power enhanced Biomass-to-liquids processes. A detailed discussion of sustainable aviation fuels prospects will be presented. The methodology of techno-economic and environmental assessment will be applied to other transport applications and industry decarbonization efforts as well to address all sectors contribution towards Fit-for-55

ADVANTAGES AND CHALLENGES IN RENEWABLE POWER ASSISTED BIOFUELS PRODUCTION

• Massive replacement of fossil fuels requires maximal output from biomass – renewable hydrogen is a valuable option to boost fuel yield • Process optimization based on techno-economic and ecological assessment • Sweet spot search across Europe for deployment • Outlook towards a European sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) roadma