The Impact of Energy Source on the Life-Cycle Assessment of Power-to-Liquid Fuels

Power-to-liquid (PtL) fuels are a promising technology and alternative to biofuels and conventional fuels. In this work, the environmental impact of PtL was investigated using life cycle assessment (LCA) in order to see how the energy source used in producing the PtL affects the environmental impacts of the fuel. The electrolysis cell used was solid oxide electrolysis cell, and the pathway of CO2 provision was biomass power plant. Four scenarios of energy sources were compared; the first scenario involved the electricity from German grid and heat from chemical industry, the second one was the electricity from Saudi Arabia grid and heat from chemical industry, the third one concerned the electricity from wind turbine and heat from evacuated tube collector, and the fourth scenario was the electricity from photovoltaic and heat from evacuated tube collector. The result of the life cycle assessment showed that the PtL fuels have environmental benefits over the fossil reference only in the third and fourth scenarios where renewable electricity was used