Life-Cycle Assessment of Power-to-Liquid Fuels for an Environmental Sound Transportation: Comparative Study

2. Institute of Environmental Technology and Energy Economics, Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg 21073, Germany

  Abstract: The expected rise in demand for fuel along with the need for storage of surplus renewable electricity are the main reasons for the attention Power-to-Liquid (PtL) is getting recently, since it is a promising technology that has the potential to provide large scale and long term energy storage. In this work, the environmental impact of PtL was investigated using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Three types of water electrolysis cells; Alkaline Electrolysis Cell (AEC), Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolysis Cell (PEM) and Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell (SOEC), and three pathways of CO2 provision; from air, from biomass power plant and from conventional power plants, were compared with each other, where the electricity needed was provided from wind turbine and heat from evacuated tube collector (renewable energy). The results of the life cycle assessment showed that the combination of SOEC and CO2 from biomass power plant has the best results among all the combinations with global warming potential of 8.6 gram CO2-Eq. per MJ of Diesel used.