KEROGREEN: Production of sustainable aircraft grade kerosene from water and air powered by renewable electricity, through the splitting of CO2, syngas formation and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis – Work Package 6: Sustainability Assessment

  • Project team:

    Patyk, Andreas (Project leader); Manuel Andresh, Jana Späthe, Lukas Lazar

  • Funding:

    EU

  • Start date:

    2018

  • End date:

    2022

  • Project partners:

    DIFFER – Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research (coordination; NL); IMVT and FOR, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE); VITO – Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch Onderzoek NV (BE); CerPoTech – Ceramic Powder Technology AS (NO); HyGear – HyGear Technology and Services B.V. (NL); INERATEC – Innovative Chemical Reactor Technologies GmbH (DE)

  • Research group:

    Research for Sustainable Energy Technologies

Project description

KEROGREEN, P2X-2, and two other projects (PRODIGY and CO2SimO) together form a group of projects which, viewed in pairs, have very similar technologies as objects of R&D and compete with each other in all combinations – at least in theory. The technologies have practically identical technology, energy, and environmental policy backgrounds and are assessed using identical methods due to identical questions. For further information, please visit P2X-2.

The common Power-to-X concept is a process for chemical storage of electricity through electrolysis of water or water/CO2 mixtures (products: H2, synthesis gas, also C2+ compounds). This is followed by synthesis reactions such as the Fischer-Tropsch reaction or methanation. In KEROGREEN, the synthesis gas is converted to FT kerosene. However, the synthesis gas is produced in an unconventional way. The CO2 is not split by electrolysis but by plasmolysis. A major technical research focus is on the development or identification of optimal materials for the plasma electrodes and the membranes for the separation of the mixture of CO2, CO, and O2 produced during plasmolysis. The hydrogen is obtained by a water-gas shift reaction with part of the CO; the CO2 is returned to the plasmolysis.

The aim of the ITAS work package is to provide the project partners with the system analytical information necessary for the efficiency-optimized and sustainable implementation of the KEROGREEN concept. The technical focus of the work at ITAS is on modular plants for decentralized production of FT kerosene. The content focus is on assessing the environmental characteristics and cost using life-cycle based methods (LCA, LCC). The analyses are conducted R&D-integrated and are performed in close cooperation with the technical partners.

Research questions are

  • the positioning of the technologies to be developed in comparison to a fossil reference technology and innovative competitive concepts in order to define benchmarks for KEROGREEN, and
  • the identification of weak points to optimize the concept and achieve the objectives.

The societal dimension is assessed based on the acceptance of the KEROGREEN concept and its competitors. The data and method basis is provided by the cost and environmental assessment of the KEROGREEN concept and the acceptance analyses conducted by IZES in P2X-2.

The LCA and LCC results are aggregated to indicators such as, e.g., greenhouse gas abatement costs. All three dimensions are discussed in summary form.

Contact

Dr. Andreas Patyk
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS)
P.O. Box 3640
76021 Karlsruhe
Germany

Tel.: +49 721 608-24606
E-mail