In order for the EU to achieve its 2050 climate objectives, transport-, power-, and industry sector, which heavily relies on fossil fuels, must significantly decrease their emissions. Green hydrogen and sustainable fuels, among them e-methanol, e-kerosene, and green ammonia, produced using the Power-to-X approach, have been recognised as viable alternatives to reduce emissions and support decarbonization. However, there are some techno-economic challenges in adopting sustainable fuels, particularly related to the higher costs compared to fossil fuels. The economic feasibility of sustainable fuels depends on the cost of green hydrogen and carbon capture technology. Large-scale deployment, improvements in electrolysis modes, and intensive implementation of point-of-source CO2 capture technologies could make sustainable fuels cost-effective and competitive with fossil fuels by 2050. However, it seems improbable that e-fuels would become widely available at low cost in the near future. The prospective environmental performance of adopting e-methanol, e-kerosene, and e-ammonia is examined, highlighting the necessity of conducting a thorough investigation into the possible negative impacts on human health and ecosystems.
Keywords
E-MethanolE-KeroseneGreen AmmoniaRenewable EnergyGreenhouse Gas EmissionEnvironmental Challenges
References
P.A. Owusu and S. Asumadu-Sarkodie, "A review of renewable energy sources, sustainability issues and climate change mitigation," Cogent Engineering, vol. 3, 2016.
A.R. Dahiru, A. Vuokila, and M. Huuhtanen, "Recent development in Power-to-X: Part I - A review on techno-economic analysis," J. Ener. Stor., vol. 56, pp. 105861, 2022.
B.S. Zainal, P.J. Ker, H. Mohamed, H.C. Ong, et. al., "Recent advancement and assessment of green hydrogen production technologies," Renew. Sustain. Energ. Rev., vol. 189(A), pp. 113941, 2024.
R. Suurmond, H. van Rhee, and T. Hak, "Introduction, comparison and validation of Meta-Essentials: A free and simple tool for meta-analysis," Res. Synth. Meth., vol. 8, pp. 537-553, 2017.
S. Sollai, A. Porcu, V. Tola, F. Ferrara, and A. Pettinau, "Renewable methanol production from green hydrogen and captured CO2: A techno-economic assessment," J. CO2 Utiliz., vol. 68, pp. 102345, 2023.
Y. Rahmat, S. Maier, F. Moser, M. Raab, et. al., "Techno-economic and exergy analysis of e-methanol production under fixed operating conditions in Germany," Applied Energy, vol. 351(C), pp. 121738, 2023.
S. Pratschner, F. Radosits, A. Ajanovic, and F. Winter, "Techno-economic assessment of a power-to-green methanol plant," J. CO2 Utilization, vol. 75, pp. 102563, 2023.
N. Heimann, R.-U. Dietrich, M. Raab, N. Wulff, R. Moser, and T. Francisco, "Standardized techno-economic analysis for the production of e-fuels in Germany," 11th International Conference "Fuel Science: From Production to Propulsion" 2023, Deutschland, 2023.
F. Ueckerdt, P. Verpoort, R. Anantharaman, C. Bauer, F. Beck, T. Longden, and S. Roussanaly, "On the Cost Competitiveness of Blue and Green Hydrogen," Joule, 2024.
D. Iribarren, R. Calvo-Serrano, M. Martín-Gamboa, A. Galán-Martín, and G. Guillén-Gosálbez, "Social life cycle assessment of green methanol and benchmarking against conventional fossil methanol," Sci. Total Environ., vol. 824, pp. 153840, 2022.
K. Appunn, "CO2 reduction and biofuels in Germany’s transport sector-Implementing the RED II directive," Clean Energy Wire, 2021.
E-Fuels: A technoeconomic assessment of European domestic production and imports towards 2050, Concawe, 2022, [Online]. Available: https://www.concawe.eu/wp-content/uploads/Rpt_22-17.pdf.
S. Roy, and E. Reisner, "Visible-Light-Driven CO2 Reduction by Mesoporous Carbon Nitride Modified with Polymeric Cobalt Phthalocyanine," Angewandte Chemie, vol. 58, pp. 12180-12184, 2019.
F.D. Ordóñez, T. Halfdanarson, C. Ganzer, N. Shah, N.M. Dowell, and G. Guillén-Gosálbez, "Evaluation of the potential use of e-fuels in the European aviation sector: a comprehensive economic and environmental assessment including externalities," Sustain. Energy Fuels., vol. 6(20), pp. 4749-4764, 2022.
Deutsche Energie-Agentur (Publisher) (dena, 2022) "E-Kerosene for Commercial Aviation, From Green Hydrogen and CO2 from Direct Air Capture – Volumes, Cost, Area Demand and Renewable Energy Competition in the United States and Europe from 2030 to 2050".
M. Micheli, D. Moore, V. Bach, and M. Finkbeiner, "Life-Cycle Assessment of Power-to-Liquid Kerosene Produced from Renewable Electricity and CO2 from Direct Air Capture in Germany," Sustainability, vol. 14(17), pp. 10658, 2022.
Y. Abdullatif, A. Sodiq, N. Mir, Y. Bicer, et. al., "Emerging trends in direct air capture of CO2: a review of technology options targeting net-zero emissions," RSC Adv., vol. 13, pp. 5687-5722, 2023.
P. Mayer, A. Ramirez, G. Pezzella, B. Winter, S.M. Sarathy, et. al., "Blue and green ammonia production: A technoeconomic and life cycle assessment perspective," iScience, vol. 26, pp. 107389, 2023.
D. Saygin, H. Blanco, F. Boshell, J. Cordonnier, K. Rouwenhorst, et. al., "Ammonia Production from Clean Hydrogen and the Implications for Global Natural Gas Demand," Sustainability, vol. 15, pp. 1623, 2023.
J. Egerer, V. Grimm, K. Niazmand, and P. Runge, "The economics of global green ammonia trade – 'Shipping Australian wind and sunshine to Germany'," Appl. Energy., vol. 334, pp. 120662, 2023.
B. Lee, L.R. Winter, H. Lee, D. Lim, H. Lim, and M. Elimelech, "Pathways to a Green Ammonia Future," ACS Energy Lett., vol. 7, pp. 3032-3038, 2022.
M.M. Nejadian, P. Ahmadi, and E. Houshfar, "Comparative optimization study of three novel integrated hydrogen production systems with SOEC, PEM, and alkaline electrolyzer," Fuel., vol. 336, pp. 126835, 2023.
W. de Vries, "Impacts of nitrogen emissions on ecosystems and human health: A mini review," Cur. Opinion Environ. Sci. Health, vol. 21, pp. 100249. 2021.
L. He, B.B. Wang, W. Xu, Q. Cui, and H. Chen, "Could China's long-term low-carbon energy transformation achieve the double dividend effect for the economy and environment?" Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. Int., vol. 29, pp. 20128-20144, 2022.
Z. Zhu and B. Xu, "Purification Technologies for NOx Removal from Flue Gas: A Review," Separations, vol. 9, pp. 307, 2022.