TECHNO ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT OF PTX PRODUCTION OFFSHORE -How to transform onshore steady state to offshore dynamic-

Abstract

The energy transition requires large amounts of energy in storable form. Electricity-based chemical energy sources can make an important contribution, but their production competes with directelectrical applications. Producing electricity offshore via wind farms has the potential of taking advantages of higher wind speeds and more full-load hours. Still, there is the downside of increased installation and maintenance cost as well as potentially longer transportation distances to the customer at land. Given the high full-load and the need to transport energy over far distances, which otherwise would be lost, the transportation via an energy carrier could be a potential option. In the 1990s, research has been done on the offshore production of Fisher-Tropsch-products or Methanol from natural gas which would have been burned off otherwise. Currently, there is a revive of different concepts: Some projects already test offshore H2-production at a small scale. Dozens of projects plan on producing Hydrogen offshore or at the coastline. Moreover, further products such as Methanol, Methane, Ammonia are planned on being produced as well. Concepts vary from using gas-platforms or similar, floating energy production and storage systems to artificial islands to energy-ships cruising the oceans. Yet, amongst all the ideas and projects, there is the question: Which is the most viable production route for a certain location? Does it make sense to produce chemicals offshore? Analyzing the production processes on a comparable manner requires comparable and standardized criteria. A proposal for a standardized approach of onshore production has been presented. In the offshore production technical and economical parameters have to be adapted in order to be able to calculated correctly. A set of parameters has been selected and discussed within the project H2Mare: PtX-wind. With these, techno-economical analysis of production paths can be assesed. First results are to be presented.