Synthetic Fuel: A Promising H2 Carrier for Transport Sector

Authors

P.-O. Calendini, N. Rankovic, P. Gaillard, V. Gordillo, W. Lilley, Aramco Overseas BV, Rueil-Malmaison; A. Amer, T. Javed, H. Babiker, Saudi Aramco R&D, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; A. Abdul-Manan, Aramco Asia, Beijing, China:

Year

2021

Print Info

Production/Publication ÖVK

Summary

Energy and mobility helps connect people to opportunities, enabling economic growths worldwide and lifting living standards of societies globally. It is imperative to note that transport is also responsible for about a quarter of total GHGs emitted, with the road sector alone accounting for 70% of total transport emissions [1]. The Paris Agreement, which officially came into force in November 2016, aims to limit global warming to well below 2 °C relative to pre-industrial level [2]. Parties to the agreement aims to peak GHG emissions as soon as possible to achieve a climate neutral world by mid-century [2].
The task of rebuilding and reshaping the future energy mix in a climate-constrained world will be central to overcoming the dual challenges of the 21st century: a sustainable economic recovery while respecting the carbon limits of a 2°C world. The Green Deal is at the heart of Europe’s response to these challenges. The EU Green Deal is a strategic action plan to decouple economic growth from resource-use towards achieving net zero GHG emissions by 2050 [3]. To achieve climate neutrality, the EU envisions that transport will require a 90% reduction in GHG emissions by 2050 relative to the year 1990 [3]. On the other hand, China, the world’s largest emitter of CO2, accounting for 28% of global emissions [4], has pledged to peak GHG emissions by 2030 and achieve net neutrality by 2060 [5]. Correspondingly, a recently updated technology roadmap for China targets the peaking of transport emissions by 2028, followed by more than 20% reduction in emissions by 2035 [6].
The role of alternative powertrains, like electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells, will be critical for transport to stay within the sectoral carbon budget. China, for example, aims for new energy vehicles to account for up to 50% of new sales by 2035, with the remaining 50% comprising of energy-efficient, gasoline-electric hybrids [6]. On the other hand, the EU targets 30 million EV cars on the road by 2030 [7]. The effective rate of decarbonization however, will depend on our ability to overcome the following challenges: (1) the speed of fleet turnover within the market [8]; (2) the accessibility to cleaner renewable power sources, particularly in countries that are still dependent on coal [9, 10]; (3) the build-up of new charging infrastructures at scale [11]; and (4) the discovery of breakthrough battery technologies to allow for large-scale penetration in all transport modes. The latter will be particularly important for the hard-to-abate transport sectors, like aviation, marine and heavy-duty vehicles, where there is yet a practical alternative.
Ultimately, deep emissions mitigation will require a diversity of policy and technology solutions [12], achieved through extensive systems-based planning and effective implementation. The transition presents an opportunity to mobilize the energy industry towards a circular carbon economy, to reuse and recycle CO2 into practical, low-carbon fuels. When produced using renewable electricity, or green/blue hydrogen sources, synthetic fuel is a sustainable liquid-vector for clean hydrogen or renewable electricity. The deployment of low-carbon, liquid synthetic fuels at scale serves the purpose of accelerating GHG mitigation in new and traditional fleets, and across the different transport sectors worldwide. However, as we will discuss in more depth throughout this paper, the success of synthetic fuels will not only rely on the techno-economic considerations, but also on the promise of a more conducive policy environment and regulatory certainties.

Number of pages

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