Accelerating the Green Transition - Investigating the Feasibility of E-Fuel Production Connected to a CHP Plant
(2023) MVKM01 20231Department of Energy Sciences
- Abstract
- The overall purpose of this thesis is to investigate the feasibility of producing electrofuels from CO2 and H2 in connection to a CHP plant equipped with carbon capture technology. This is done by investigating the production of e-methane, e-methanol and e-kerosene from captured CO2 and H2 produced from electrolysis. Each of the processes is designed and analyzed in Aspen HYSYS. From this, the energy and product requirements for each process are obtained. With these results, a production model including the electrofuel and hydrogen production, integrated with the CHP plant Filbornaverket, were modelled in the software Energy Optima 3. Both a smaller system using only part of the captured CO2 and a system at full scale using all the... (More)
- The overall purpose of this thesis is to investigate the feasibility of producing electrofuels from CO2 and H2 in connection to a CHP plant equipped with carbon capture technology. This is done by investigating the production of e-methane, e-methanol and e-kerosene from captured CO2 and H2 produced from electrolysis. Each of the processes is designed and analyzed in Aspen HYSYS. From this, the energy and product requirements for each process are obtained. With these results, a production model including the electrofuel and hydrogen production, integrated with the CHP plant Filbornaverket, were modelled in the software Energy Optima 3. Both a smaller system using only part of the captured CO2 and a system at full scale using all the captured CO2 are developed. Furthermore, the simulations were done for spot prices in SE4, for both 2021 and 2022.
Average energy demands for the e-fuels were 28.8 kWh/kg for e-methane, 9.97 kWh/kg for e-methanol and 37.6 kWh/kg for e-kerosene. This includes the manufacturing process and hydrogen production.
Production costs were lowest for the base case 2021, where e-methane, e-methanol and e-kerosene had production costs of 8.9, 2.2 and 16.4 SEK/kgfuel respectively. The highest production costs were for the full case 2022, where the costs were 31.8, 10.8 and 49.9 SEK/kgfuel, following the same order. For both 2021 and 2022, the production costs were higher for the full scale case than the base case. The main reason for this is that the CHP plant could not supply the processes with as much electricity, meaning the electricity costs for production quickly became high.
The findings showed that integration of e-fuel production with a CHP plant could result in a lower production cost and energy demand. However, there are still many aspects of this project that needs to be further investigated to be able to say to which extent. The main factor affecting the production cost was electricity prices. And, the main factor affecting the energy demand was hydrogen production. Maximizing the amount of electricity contributed to the e-fuel production from the CHP plant as well as researching other hydrogen production techniques are therefore the largest reduction possibilities. From this, it can still be concluded that there is great potential in integrating e-fuel production with a CHP plant. (Less) - Popular Abstract
- What if it is possible to produce fuels that generate no emissions, with the same characteristics as fossil fuels? High production costs are seen today but there are possibilities in reducing the costs and energy demand by having the production in direct connection with a CHP plant.
Climate change is upon us, and actions are needed to decrease emissions of dangerous greenhouse gases. There are many proposed solutions and many cries for help to reach the 1.5 °C goal of the Paris Agreement. The transport sector is the sector that depends most on fossil fuels. It stands for almost 25 % of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Solutions for decreasing the emissions in this sector are highly needed.
E-fuels are an innovative alternative... (More) - What if it is possible to produce fuels that generate no emissions, with the same characteristics as fossil fuels? High production costs are seen today but there are possibilities in reducing the costs and energy demand by having the production in direct connection with a CHP plant.
Climate change is upon us, and actions are needed to decrease emissions of dangerous greenhouse gases. There are many proposed solutions and many cries for help to reach the 1.5 °C goal of the Paris Agreement. The transport sector is the sector that depends most on fossil fuels. It stands for almost 25 % of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Solutions for decreasing the emissions in this sector are highly needed.
E-fuels are an innovative alternative to fossil fuels. They are based on electricity, hydrogen (H2) and carbon dioxide (CO2), and still, they possess the same characteristics. The CO2 is obtained by different capturing techniques. This way, instead of releasing new emissions, the CO2 can be continuously reused. To be considered renewable, the CO2 needs to be captured directly from the air (or from exhaust gases from burning biomass). Whether the CO2 is renewable determines if it is classified as green, blue, gray or brown. Green is considered the best. For that, renewable CO2 is required, as well as green H2. Green H2 is obtained when it is produced with renewable electricity.
Three more well-known e-fuels are e-methane, e-methanol and e-kerosene. E-methane can substitute natural gas which is used by industries and for heating. E-methanol can power large ships, meaning that your future Caribbean cruise can be considered green. E-kerosene can be used as jet fuel, thereby flying to a ski resort could also be completely environmentally friendly.
More and more facilities that produce e-fuels are popping up. Production prices are, however, still higher than for other fuels. So, more research needs to be done to make e-fuels part of the market. A combined heat and power (CHP) plant is a power plant that produces both heat and electricity. Since the production of e-fuels requires both those things, combining them could result in positive synergies. A smaller production volume of e-fuels, where the production is to a higher extent supplied with electricity from the CHP plant, turns out to be more profitable. It could even be possible to produce e-fuels at the same production price as their bio-based counterparts. For e-fuels to have a chance of competing with bio-based fuels, this is vital.
Producing e-fuels will also require energy. In the production process, heat is required as well as electricity. This is required e.g., to activate chemical reactions by heating and increasing the pressure. The H2 production requires large amounts of electricity and in the total production, this electricity demand stands for the largest part. By producing e-fuels in connection to a CHP plant, energy savings can be made. One such saving is using waste heat from the production process in the district heating network. Since the production of e-fuels requires a lot of energy, all energy savings are of great importance.
These findings could be of great use to energy producers and the industry. Producing e-fuels in connection to a CHP plant could lead to both cost and energy savings. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9128860
- author
- Scholtz, Johanna LU and Maillard, Alice LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MVKM01 20231
- year
- 2023
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- CCU, CHP plant, e-fuels, e-methane, e-methanol, e-kerosene
- report number
- ISRN: LUTMDN/TMHP-23/5545-SE
- ISSN
- 0282-1990
- language
- English
- id
- 9128860
- date added to LUP
- 2023-06-22 09:45:39
- date last changed
- 2023-06-22 09:45:39
@misc{9128860,
abstract = {{The overall purpose of this thesis is to investigate the feasibility of producing electrofuels from CO2 and H2 in connection to a CHP plant equipped with carbon capture technology. This is done by investigating the production of e-methane, e-methanol and e-kerosene from captured CO2 and H2 produced from electrolysis. Each of the processes is designed and analyzed in Aspen HYSYS. From this, the energy and product requirements for each process are obtained. With these results, a production model including the electrofuel and hydrogen production, integrated with the CHP plant Filbornaverket, were modelled in the software Energy Optima 3. Both a smaller system using only part of the captured CO2 and a system at full scale using all the captured CO2 are developed. Furthermore, the simulations were done for spot prices in SE4, for both 2021 and 2022.
Average energy demands for the e-fuels were 28.8 kWh/kg for e-methane, 9.97 kWh/kg for e-methanol and 37.6 kWh/kg for e-kerosene. This includes the manufacturing process and hydrogen production.
Production costs were lowest for the base case 2021, where e-methane, e-methanol and e-kerosene had production costs of 8.9, 2.2 and 16.4 SEK/kgfuel respectively. The highest production costs were for the full case 2022, where the costs were 31.8, 10.8 and 49.9 SEK/kgfuel, following the same order. For both 2021 and 2022, the production costs were higher for the full scale case than the base case. The main reason for this is that the CHP plant could not supply the processes with as much electricity, meaning the electricity costs for production quickly became high.
The findings showed that integration of e-fuel production with a CHP plant could result in a lower production cost and energy demand. However, there are still many aspects of this project that needs to be further investigated to be able to say to which extent. The main factor affecting the production cost was electricity prices. And, the main factor affecting the energy demand was hydrogen production. Maximizing the amount of electricity contributed to the e-fuel production from the CHP plant as well as researching other hydrogen production techniques are therefore the largest reduction possibilities. From this, it can still be concluded that there is great potential in integrating e-fuel production with a CHP plant.}},
author = {{Scholtz, Johanna and Maillard, Alice}},
issn = {{0282-1990}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Accelerating the Green Transition - Investigating the Feasibility of E-Fuel Production Connected to a CHP Plant}},
year = {{2023}},
}