Electricity-based Fuels

100 Pages·2018·3.618 MB·English

by  Alexander Tremel (auth.)

SPRINGER BRIEFS IN
APPLIED SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
Alexander Tremel
Electricity-based
Fuels
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Alexander Tremel
Electricity-based Fuels
123
Alexander Tremel
Siemens Corporate Technology
Erlangen
Germany
ISSN 2191-530X ISSN 2191-5318 (electronic)
SpringerBriefs inApplied SciencesandTechnology
ISBN978-3-319-72458-4 ISBN978-3-319-72459-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72459-1
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Preface
Traditionally, electricity is considered as the most valuable form of energy—not
only from a thermodynamic perspective, but also from an economic perspective.
Majortechnologicaldevelopments inenergytechnology inthelast150years were
driven by the optimization of the conversion process offossil fuel into electricity.
Withinamulti-modalenergysystem,thevalueofelectricityonacomparablebasis
(e.g.indollarspermegawatthour)wasalwayssignificantlyhigherthanthevalueof
fossil fuel or heat and cold, respectively. Also, electricity from renewable sources
wastraditionallymoreexpensive—sometimesbyordersofmagnitude—thanpower
generation based on fossil fuels.
Duetothetraditionallyhighercost,electricity isusuallynottheprimaryenergy
sourcefortheprocessandchemicalindustry.Theconversionofelectricalenergyto
chemical energy iscertainly awellknown processinmany industrial applications;
however,itisusuallyonlyappliedifotherprocessroutesarethermodynamicallyor
chemically not possible. The production processes of metals like aluminum or
chemicals like chlorine are examples for electrochemical conversion.
These traditional and well established paradigms are likely to erode in the
comingdecades,maybeevenyears.Wehaveseenunsubsidizedpricesofrenewable
powergenerationabove70USdollarpermegawatthourin2014whichmightstill
fit into the traditional paradigm. However, in 2016 renewable power auctions with
prices below 30 US dollar per megawatt hour were published. Since current cost
outlooks predict a further significant decrease of generation costs, it is likely that
renewablepowergenerationwillbethelowestcostenergyoptioninmanycountries
of the world in the next decades.
Ideas for the conversion of electricity into fuels can be dated back to the last
century and were motivated by the oil crises or through promises of low cost
nuclear power generation. These motivations were not sustainable.
I have begun thinking about the utilization of renewable electricity for fuel
production during my time as research assistant at the Technical University in
Munich. It was the time for technical ideas and investigations regarding the com-
binationofbiomassgasificationandrenewableelectricityasfeedstocksinceatthat
time renewable energy in the form of biomass was much cheaper then renewable
v
vi Preface
electricity. It was not yet the time to focus on the techno-economic perspective
since any short or medium-term commercial viability was out of reach.
At Siemens Corporate Technology I have continued with theoretical and
experimentalresearchinthisfieldofelectricity-basedfuels.Sincerenewablepower
generation costs have significantly fallen, I focus now on electricity as main
feedstock and include also the techno-economic perspective.
Thisbookgivesanoverviewoftherequiredprocesschainfortheproductionof
electricity-basedfuels,ofthemaintechnologiesandofthemaintechnicalandcost
parameters.Sincerenewableelectricityisusuallyanintermittentsource,designand
operation strategies for Power-to-Fuel plants are discussed. Cost optimal plant
layouts for windy and sunny locations around the world are described and fuel
production costs are derived. Finally, remaining risks and development targets are
summarized and electricity-based fuels are discussed as innovative form of inter-
national development assistance.
First and foremost, I would like to thank my wife Christina for her continuous
encouragementandespeciallyforherpatiencewiththeholidayandweekendhours
I have spent on the book. She is my love, and I dedicate this book to her. I also
thankmywonderfulchildrenAntonandLuisaforalwaysmakingmesmileandfor
their understanding on those weekend mornings when I was writing this book
instead of playing games. Finally, I like to thank my colleagues at Siemens
CorporateTechnologywhoresearchnewtechnologicalpathwayswithgreatjoyand
sometimes with the capacity to suffer. Today, successful research is a team sport.
Erlangen, Germany Alexander Tremel
October 2017
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Global Warming and Defossilization of Energy Systems. . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Defossilization of Transportation—Are Battery Electric
Vehicles the Best Solution?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 Electricity-Based Fuels as Promising Low Carbon Fuels. . . . . . . . 10
1.4 Opportunities for Stakeholders in Different Fields. . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.5 Energy System Integration and Off-Grid Electricity
Generation Potentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.6 Technological Pathways and Maturity of Power-to-Fuel
Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2 Electrolysis—Fundamental Technologies, Requirements
and Current Status. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.1 Alkaline Electrolysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.2 Proton-Exchange-Membrane Electrolysis (PEM). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.3 Solid Oxide Electrolysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3 ChemicalandBiologicalSynthesis—Basisfor GaseousandLiquid
Fuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.1 Today’s Chemical and Biological Synthesis Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.2 Current Status of Chemical Synthesis for Power-to-Fuel
Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.3 Evaluation of Process Routes and Suitable Fuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.3.1 Process Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.3.2 Plant Economics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.3.3 Assessment of the Different Synthesis Routes . . . . . . . . . . 44
4 Power-to-Fuel Plants—Conceptual Design and Applications. . . . . . . 47
4.1 Availability of Electricity as Design Criterion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.1.1 Electricity Market as Plant Design and Operation
Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
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viii Contents
4.1.2 Plant Design and Operation Based on Renewable
Generation Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.2 Power-to-Fuel Plant Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.3 Technology and Cost Outlook of Key Components . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.3.1 Renewable Electricity Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.3.2 Electrolysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4.3.3 Carbon Capture Technologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.3.4 Chemical Synthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.4 Techno-economic Evaluation for Specific Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.4.1 Grid-Connected Plant in Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.4.2 Onshore Wind in Morocco. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.4.3 Offshore Wind in Chile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.4.4 Hydropower in Scandinavia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.4.5 Solar Photovoltaics in Dubai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.4.6 Combined Onshore Wind and Solar PV in Australia . . . . . 72
5 Evaluation and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.1 Comparison of Different Power-to-Fuel Plant Concepts. . . . . . . . . 75
5.2 GHG Reduction Potential as Key for Commercial
Implementation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.3 Value Chain and Key Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
5.4 Value of Plant Flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
6 Outlook: Risks and Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
6.1 Remaining Risks and Development Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
6.2 Opportunities for Developing Countries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
References.... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 91
About the Author
Dr.-Ing. Alexander Tremel born in Lichtenfels, Germany, studied chemical
engineering at the Technische Universität München (TUM), Germany, and at the
University of Melbourne, Australia. He was research assistant at the Institute for
Energy Systems (TUM) in Munich and worked at the Commonwealth Scientific
and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Brisbane, Australia. After final-
izing his Ph.D. thesis on coal and biomass gasification Alexander joined Siemens
CorporateTechnologyin2011.HeispartoftheTechnologyFieldEnergySystems
and responsible for the mid and long term research strategy in energy process
technology and energy storage.
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