Synthetic natural gas (SNG) production by biomass gasification with CO2 capture: Techno-economic and life cycle analysis (LCA)
Călin-Cristian Cormoş, Mihaela Drâgan, Letitia Petrescu, Ana‐Maria Cormos, Simion Drăgan, Arthur-Maximilian Báthori, Ştefan Cristian Galusnyak
Abstract
The integration of renewables with CCUS technologies has the promising potential to deliver energy applications with overall negative CO 2 emissions which would significantly contribute to the climate neutrality. Moreover, the renewable-based synthetic fuels are predicted to replace the conventional fossil fuels. The current work evaluates key techno-economic and environmental indicators for the SNG production from various renewable fuels (e.g., sawdust, residual wood, organic wastes, agricultural and urban wastes etc.) through gasification process fitted with decarbonization capability. The investigated plant capacity was set to 500 MW th SNG with 60 % CO 2 capture rate of primary fuel (biomass). The overall concept was evaluated using various process engineering approaches e.g., reactor & process modelling and simulation, model validation, heat and power analysis, techno-economic assessment combined with detailed environmental impact by Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). The investigated design shows promising performance indicators such as high cumulative energy efficiency (69 %) and carbon conversion to SNG, almost zero plant specific CO 2 emissions (3 kg/MWh) and overall negative carbon emissions (−457 kg/MWh) from the whole biomass chain. The SNG production cost is not yet fully competitive versus the EU natural gas prices (53 vs. 30–35 €/MWh) but it shows promising potential considering the trends of increasing fossil prices and CO 2 emission tax. • Investigation of the SNG production based on biomass gasification with CO 2 capture. • The SNG plant has 69 % energy efficiency and near zero CO 2 emissions (3 kg/MWh). • The SNG price is not yet competitive with the natural gas one (53 vs. 30–35 €/MWh). • The SNG plant has negative carbon footprint (−457 kg/MWh) for the whole biomass chain.