Bio-synthetic natural gas as fuel in steel industry reheating furnaces – A case study of economic performance and effects on global CO2 emissions

Abstract

Climate change is of great concern for society today. Manufacturing industries and construction account for approximately 20% of global CO 2 emissions and, consequently, it is important that this sector investigate options to reduce its CO 2 emissions. One option could be to substitute fossil fuels with renewable alternatives. This paper describes a case study in which four future energy market scenarios predicting 2030 were used to analyse whether it would be profitable for a steel plant to produce bio-synthetic natural gas (bio-SNG) in a biomass gasifier and to substitute liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) with bio-SNG as fuel in reheating furnaces. The effects on global CO 2 emissions were analysed from a perspective in which biomass is considered a limited resource. The results from the analysis show that investment in a biomass gasifier and fuel conversion would not be profitable in any of the scenarios. Depending on the scenario, the production cost for bio-SNG ranged between 22-36 EUR/GJ. Fuel substitution would reduce global CO 2 emission if the marginal biomass user is a producer of transportation fuel. However, if the marginal user of biomass is a coal power plant with wood co-firing, the result would be increased global CO 2 emissions.

Terminology used for renewable liquid and gaseous fuels based on the conversion of electricity: a review

“…In some cases, the term synthetic natural gas refers to bio-SNG, since biomass has been used to produce the synthetic natural gas [30,31]. In other cases, the word natural is taken out from the term [32], which can be misleading because the composition of synthetic natural gas and synthetic gas is not the same.…”

Biomass gasification-based syngas production for a conventional oxo synthesis plant—greenhouse gas emission balances and economic evaluation

“…Process integration studies of various thermochemical biorefinery concepts at different industrial sites have been reported in the literature, such as at a biomass-fired combined heat and power plant (Heyne et al, 2012); pulp and paper mills (Andersson and Lundgren, 2014;Consonni et al, 2009); a mechanical pulp and paper mill co-located with a sawmill plant (Isaksson et al, 2012); a steel plant (Johansson, 2013;Lundgren et al, 2013); a chemical cluster (Holmgren et al, 2014); and oil refineries (Brau et al, 2013;Johansson et al, 2012;Sadhukhan and Ng, 2011). Oxo synthesis is another possible interesting application of biomass-derived syngas (Boerrigter and Rauch, 2006;Spath and Dayton, 2003).…”

Comparisons between energy carriers' productions for exploiting renewable energy sources

“…Nzihou et al [13] presented a review of synthetic fuel production from biomass in combination with concentrated solar energy. Johansson [14] implemented a case study regarding synthetic natural gas production from biomass for steel industry. An experimental study on co-electrolysis performance and durability was performed in Ref.…”