Decarbonization of Industry and Transport – interlinked Carbon Cycles

Abstract

The transition towards a carbon-neutral society means a great challenge for the power sector, the industrial production of basic materials and the transport sector. The methodology of techno-economic and environmental assessment provides answers about the cost of CO2 abatement in any of these sectors. Examples are the decarbonization of coal power plants to provide reliable baseload power using fluctuating renewable electricity. Another example is the decarbonization of the glass industry, with more than 300 kg CO2 emissions per tonne of produced glass and accounting for about 20 MtCO2-eq./a in Europe. Highly concentrated CO2 waste gas can be purified and used with hydrogen from water electrolysis to produce fuel for the glass furnace, completing a carbon cycle for carbon-neutral glass production. A third example is the transport sector, especially aviation, shipping and heavy load, that will continue to rely on liquid, carbon-based fuels. We present a methodology to assess different fuel and production options fair and transparent simultaneously technically, economically as well as environmentally for comparison and selection. As the regulatory initiative ReFuelEU Aviation was introduced to mitigate the impact of aviation on the environment, technological innovations of Power-to-liquids, Biomass-to-liquids and Power enhanced Biomass-to-liquids processes where proposed. A detailed discussion of sustainable aviation fuels prospects will be presented.