High Efficiency Co-production of Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) and Fischer−Tropsch (FT) Transportation Fuels from Biomass

Abstract

The technical, economic, and ecological feasibility of the co-production of 50 PJ of Fischer−Tropsch (FT) transportation liquids per year and 150 PJ of synthetic natural gas (SNG) per year (i.e., 10% of the 2001 Dutch consumption) has been studied. (Note: PJ is the abbreviation for petajoule; hence, 1 PJ = 1015 J.) In the co-production concept, some of the SNG is produced by methanation of the FT off-gas, which already contains significant amounts of C1−C4 SNG compounds. The additional required SNG is produced by dedicated methanation of some of the gasification product gas. Co-production results in higher biomass-to-fuel efficiencies, lower biomass input requirements, and less-negative net present values (NPVs), compared to the case of complete separate production of both fuels. Co-production concepts that are based on pressurized oxygen-blown gasification result in the lowest CO2 emission reduction costs (∼100 Euro/tonne) and with a potential reduction to 55 Euro/tonne, considering CO2 sequestration. H...