Power and Biomass-to-Liquid (PBtL): a Promising Approach to Produce Biofuels using Electricity

Abstract

To achieve the emission mitigation and de-carbonization goals future aviation sector requires alternative sustainable fuels. Synthetic paraffinic kerosene, generated by Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, is certified as a drop-in jet fuel up to 50 %. Potential production routes are via conversion of biomass (Biomass-to-Liquid, BTL), the combination of renewable power and biomass (Power-and-Biomass-to-Liquid, PBTL) and the conversion of CO2 with hydrogen to fuels (Power-to-Liquid, PTL). Even if the BTL route enables the lowest net production costs, it has some drawbacks compared to the alternatives. The fuel yield of the BTL concepts can be increased by a factor of about 3 by the PBTL processes. The highest overall efficiency is found for the PTL (48.1 %) followed by PBTL (45.0 %) and last BTL (29.8 %). For BTL only 27 % of the introduced carbon can be converted into fuels. The total investment costs are highest for BTL, followed by PBTL and PTL. The net production costs are in the reverse order. Low electricity prices and high capacities are advantageous for PBTL, while high electricity prices favor BTL-concept.