Evaluation of CO₂ sources for Power-to-Liquid plants producing Fischer-Tropsch products

Abstract

In addition to the climate crisis’s looming dangers, Europe was recently affected by profoundly volatile energy markets, entailing soaring inflation and political uncertainty. Power-to-Liquid processes have the potential to curb global warming by valorizing CO₂ to produce synthetic fuels and platform chemicals while simultaneously substituting fossil energy imports. The impact of the CO₂ source, i.e., cement production, biogas upgrading and solid biomass combustion, on Power-to-Liquid plants was evaluated by implementing the designed configuration, including CO₂ capture, solid-oxide electrolyzer, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and steam reforming, in IPSEpro, a stationary equation-based process simulation tool. Maximum Power-to-Liquid efficiency of 63.8% and maximum carbon efficiency of 88.6% were obtained by exploiting CO₂ emitted by a biogas upgrading unit. Solid-oxide electrolyzers ranging from 23 MWel. (biogas) to 504 MWel. (cement) are required to process CO₂ streams from 4.5 to 100 t/h. In addition, the mass and energy balances of the three considered configurations were determined and embedded in a process flow diagram. The presented study aims to facilitate future decisions concerning carbon capture and utilization policy by assessing the CO₂ source’s influence on Power-to-Liquid plants’ key performance indicators. Furthermore, the underlying work supports a sustainable realization of Power-to-Liquid plants by offering a framework for exploiting CO₂ sources.