Low-carbon “drop-in replacement” transportation fuels from non-food biomass and natural gas

Anna K. Hailey, Johannes C. Meerman, Eric D. Larson and Yueh-Lin Loo

Applied Energy, 2016, vol. 183, issue C, 1722-1730

Abstract: We assessed the technical and economic viability of small-scale plants producing “drop-in replacement” transportation fuels from non-food biomass and capturing and storing byproduct CO2 in spent shale-gas wells. Additional designs considered co-processing of natural gas — the least carbon-intensive fossil fuel — to increase liquid-fuel yields and plant efficiency, with some penalty in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions footprint. For fuels from first-of-a-kind facilities to be cost-competitive with petroleum-derived fuels when crude oil costs $100/bbl, an effective GHG emissions price in excess of $250/tCO2,eq would be required. If lower production costs are achieved in successive facilities via innovation and experience, fuels from future plants may become cost-competitive at crude oil prices as low as $85/bbl in the absence of any GHG emissions price, and at $50/bbl with a GHG emissions price of $135/tCO2,eq, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggests is an emissions price level needed before 2050 to induce the emissions reductions needed to limit global warming to 2°C.

Keywords: Biofuels; Natural gas; Carbon capture; Shale CO2 storage; Process design; Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.09.068

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