Techno‐economic performance of sustainable international bio‐SNG production and supply chains on short and longer term

Abstract

Synthetic natural gas (SNG) derived from biomass gasification is a potential transport fuel and natural gas substitute. Using the Netherlands as a case study, this paper evaluates the most economic and environmentally optimal supply chain for the production of biomass based SNG (so‐called bio‐SNG) for different biomass production regions and location of final conversion facilities, with final delivery of compressed natural gas at refueling stations servicing the transport sector. At a scale of 100 MWth, in, delivered bioSNG costs range from 18.6 to 25.9$/GJdelivered CNG while energy efficiency ranges from 46.8–61.9%. If production capacities are scaled up to 1000 MWth, in, SNG costs decrease by about 30% to 12.6–17.4$ GJdelivered CNG−1. BioSNG production in Ukraine and transportation of the gas by pipeline to the Netherlands results in the lowest delivered cost in all cases and the highest energy efficiency pathway (61.9%). This is mainly due to low pipeline transport costs and energy losses compared to long‐distance Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) transport. However, synthetic natural gas production from torrefied pellets (TOPs) results in the lowest GHG emissions (17 kg CO2e GJCNG−1) while the Ukraine routes results in 25 kg CO2e GJCNG−1. Production costs at 100 MWth are higher than the current natural gas price range, but lower than the oil prices and biodiesel prices. BioSNG costs could converge with natural gas market prices in the coming decades, estimated to be 18.2$ GJ−1. At 1000 MWth, bioSNG becomes competitive with natural gas (especially if attractive CO2 prices are considered) and very competitive with oil and biodiesel. It is clear that scaling of SNG production to the GWth scale is key to cost reduction and could result in competitive SNG costs. For regions like Brazil, it is more cost‐effective to densify biomass into pellets or TOPS and undertake final conversion near the import harbor. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

System analysis of the bio‐based economy in Colombia: A bottom‐up energy system model and scenario analysis

“…The database of existing technologies was based on the TIMES‐CO‐9 model, and was calibrated to the national energy balance year 2015 79 . The bio‐based data were drawn from various sources 8,26,59,80,81 . Data on non‐bio power 82,83 oil refineries and hydrogen 84,85 were also used.…”

Perspective on the hydrogen economy as a pathway to reach net-zero CO2emissions in Europe

“…146 Biomass gasification is a widely studied process including many different biomass sources as feedstock, as well as reactor types and reactor conditions. 145,146,189,190 A typical division of biomass gasification processes can be in terms of temperature, distinguishing between high-temperature processes operating over 1300 1C and low-temperature processes operating roughly between 700 and 1000 1C. 145 The high temperature route typically uses oxygen blown entrained flow gasifiers that produce a very pure hydrogen stream free from tars but at the expense of comparatively lower biomass to hydrogen efficiencies and low fuel flexibility (requiring a very well defined biomass feed).…”

“…145,146,189,190 A typical division of biomass gasification processes can be in terms of temperature, distinguishing between high-temperature processes operating over 1300 1C and low-temperature processes operating roughly between 700 and 1000 1C. 145 The high temperature route typically uses oxygen blown entrained flow gasifiers that produce a very pure hydrogen stream free from tars but at the expense of comparatively lower biomass to hydrogen efficiencies and low fuel flexibility (requiring a very well defined biomass feed). In the 2000's and early 2010's there was much enthusiasm for high temperature wood gasification, but especially the very high costs of upscaling (not of the final commercial size technology) have proven a large hurdle and there are few activities currently.…”

“…The development and inherent cost reductions of the electrolysis technologies is well under way, as discussed below in Section 3.2. Biomass gasification has been demonstrated at pilot or demonstration scale, for instance in the Silvagas 145 and GoBiGas plants, 146 but still suffers from technical hurdles, especially in the case of high temperature, entrained flow gasification (Section 3.4), which on paper is the most suitable for direct hydrogen production. Reported cost projections for biomass-based hydrogen show a mixed picture, with values reported as low as NG-based hydrogen production The 2017 global wind and solar electricity production was just 6% of the total global electricity production.…”

Biomass in the time of climate change

“…The database of existing technologies was based on the TIMES-CO-9 model, and was calibrated to the national energy balance year 2015 (UPME, 2017). The bio-based data was drawn from (Batidzirai et al, 2019;Lap et al, 2019;Tews et al, 2014;Tsiropoulos, Hoefnagels, et al, 2018), whereas data on non-bio power, oil refineries and hydrogen was based on (de Vita et al, 2018), (IEA ETSAP, 2014b) and (Blanco et al, 2018;Bolat & Thiel, 2014), respectively.…”