TY - JOUR
T1 - Environmental and economic performance of hybrid power-to- liquid and biomass-to-liquid fuel production in the united states
AU - Staples, Mark D.
AU - Isaacs, Stewart A.
AU - Allroggen, Florian
AU - Mallapragada, Dharik S.
AU - Falter, Christoph P.
AU - Barrett, Steven R.H.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/6/15
Y1 - 2021/6/15
N2 - Power-to-liquids are a class of liquid drop-in fuels produced from electricity and carbon dioxide as the primary process inputs, which have the potential to reduce transportation's climate impacts. We quantify the economic and life cycle environmental characteristics of four electrofuel technology pathways that rely on the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis but produce synthesis gas via different schemes: Power-to-liquid (PtL) via electrolysis and a reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction; PtL via co-electrolysis; gasification of biomass-toliquid (BtL); and a hybrid power- and biomass-to-liquid (PBtL) pathway. The results indicate that the hybrid PBtL pathway is the most environmentally and economically promising option for electrofuel production, with results highly dependent on input electricity source characteristics such as cost and emissions. The carbon intensities of electricity generation that must not be exceeded for electrofuels to have lower life cycle emissions than conventional diesel are 222, 116, and 143 gCO2e/kWh for PBtL, PtL electrolysis + RWGS, and PtL co-electrolysis, respectively. We characterize the PBtL pathway in more detail by combining spatially resolved data on biomass cultivation, electricity generation, and cost-optimized hydrogen production from renewable electricity in the United States (US). We find that the private emissions abatement cost for PBtL fuels varies between 740 and 2000 $/tCO2e, depending primarily on the location of fuel production.
AB - Power-to-liquids are a class of liquid drop-in fuels produced from electricity and carbon dioxide as the primary process inputs, which have the potential to reduce transportation's climate impacts. We quantify the economic and life cycle environmental characteristics of four electrofuel technology pathways that rely on the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis but produce synthesis gas via different schemes: Power-to-liquid (PtL) via electrolysis and a reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction; PtL via co-electrolysis; gasification of biomass-toliquid (BtL); and a hybrid power- and biomass-to-liquid (PBtL) pathway. The results indicate that the hybrid PBtL pathway is the most environmentally and economically promising option for electrofuel production, with results highly dependent on input electricity source characteristics such as cost and emissions. The carbon intensities of electricity generation that must not be exceeded for electrofuels to have lower life cycle emissions than conventional diesel are 222, 116, and 143 gCO2e/kWh for PBtL, PtL electrolysis + RWGS, and PtL co-electrolysis, respectively. We characterize the PBtL pathway in more detail by combining spatially resolved data on biomass cultivation, electricity generation, and cost-optimized hydrogen production from renewable electricity in the United States (US). We find that the private emissions abatement cost for PBtL fuels varies between 740 and 2000 $/tCO2e, depending primarily on the location of fuel production.
KW - Electrofuel
KW - Life cycle analysis
KW - Power-to-liquid
KW - Renewable energy
KW - Renewable hydrogen
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U2 - 10.1021/acs.est.0c07674
DO - 10.1021/acs.est.0c07674
M3 - Article
C2 - 34081455
AN - SCOPUS:85108302915
SN - 0013-936X
VL - 55
SP - 8247
EP - 8257
JO - Environmental Science and Technology
JF - Environmental Science and Technology
IS - 12
ER -