Techno-economic and environmental assessment of BECCS in fuel generation for FT-fuel, bioSNG and OMEx

Abstract

This study focuses on bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) in fuel generation and assesses the potential of biofuel generation to decarbonise the fuel economy by reducing CO₂ emissions to the atmosphere. The research investigates the technical, economic, and environmental performances of three biofuel production routes, namely Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS), bio-synthetic natural gas (bioSNG) and oxymethylene ethers (OMEx) synthesis using flowsheets developed in Aspen Plus. It constitutes the first attempt to holistically evaluate both the techno-economic performance and the environmental benefits of employing BECCS in fuel generation. For an input of 1020 dry tonnes per day of woody biomass, the FTS route yields 275 t d⁻¹, the bioSNG route yields 238 t d⁻¹ and the OMEx route yields 635 t d⁻¹ of fuel and the energy efficiency is in the range of 44.9% to59.7% without CCS and 44.0% to 58.2% with CCS. In addition, negative emissions can be achieved for all routes with CCS in the range of 301 000 to 519 000 tCO₂ per year. For economic viability, the minimum selling price for FT-fuels, bioSNG, and OMEx production with CCS have been calculated as £23.4 per GJ, £14.5 per GJ and £26.5 per GJ, respectively. However, competition with conventional fossil-derived fuels is not possible without the combination of existing financial incentives and a proposed carbon pricing. With carbon credit as the only financial incentive, carbon pricing in the range of £48 to £86 per tCO₂ needs to be applied to achieve feasibility. Also, more negative emissions need to be generated to decrease the value of this range and reasonably phase out dependence on fossil-derived fuels. Parametric studies identified as crucial parameters to be improved the fuel output, CAPEX, operating hours and feedstock cost.