Long-Term Hydrocarbon Trade Options for the Maghreb Region and Europe—Renewable Energy Based Synthetic Fuels for a Net Zero Emissions World

By M. Fasihi, D. Bogdanov, Christian Breyer. 2017

134 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Concerns about climate change and increasing emission costs are drivers for new sources of fuels for Europe. Sustainable hydrocarbons can be produced synthetically by power-to-gas (PtG) and power-to-liquids (PtL) facilities, for sectors with low direct electrification such as aviation, heavy transportation and chemical industry. Hybrid PV–Wind power plants can harvest high solar and wind potentials of the Maghreb region to power these systems. This paper calculates the cost of these fuels for Europe, and presents a respective business case for the Maghreb region. Calculations are hourly resolved to find the least cost combination of technologies in a 0.45° × 0.45° spatial resolution. Results show that, for 7% weighted average cost of capital (WACC), renewable energy based synthetic natural gas (RE-SNG) and RE-diesel can be produced in 2030 for a minimum cost of 76 €/MWh HHV (0.78 €/m 3 SNG ) and 88 €/MWh HHV (0.85 €/L), respectively. While in 2040, these production costs can drop to 66 €/MWh HHV (0.68 €/m 3 SNG ) and 83 €/MWh HHV (0.80 €/L), respectively. Considering access to a WACC of 5% in a de-risking project, oxygen sales and CO 2 emissions costs, RE-diesel can reach fuel-parity at crude oil prices of 101 and 83 USD/bbl in 2030 and 2040, respectively. Thus, RE-synthetic fuels could be produced to answer fuel demand and remove environmental concerns in Europe at an affordable cost.

Subfields: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Energy Engineering and Power Technology, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/05522ca4dac1001d6f88a6cbf0690a2df54bae47

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Electrical and Electronic Engineering

1. E. Zeyen
2. Marta Victoria
3. Christian Breyer
4. Tom Brown
5. Michael Child
6. D. Bogdanov
7. Henrik Lund
8. David P. Schlachtberger

In Energy Engineering and Power Technology

1. Marta Victoria
2. Tom Brown
3. E. Zeyen
4. Michael Child
5. Christian Breyer

In Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

1. Marta Victoria
2. Tom Brown
3. E. Zeyen
4. Michael Child
5. Christian Breyer

Citations in the corpus

• Sustainability guardrails for energy scenarios of the global energy transition (2018, background): “The remaining energy services which cannot be provided through electrification, services for providing seasonal storage, or processes which require a hydrocarbon feedstock, could be substituted with renewable based synthetic hydrocarbons [50] in a carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) process.”
• Speed of technological transformations required in Europe to achieve different climate goals (2021, methodology): “Moreover, we discuss the strong implications of the SCC and discount rate assumed when comparing alternative paths.”