Decarbonisation Technology - February 2023

are likely to reach maturity by 2030 except for xylenes synthesis, which is currently only being developed on a lab scale. Conclusion The findings of both parts of the CU assessment can be summarised as follows: • Many carbon utilisation technologies are moving toward technological maturity. • A large amount of hydrogen is needed to produce fuels and other oxygen-free products, making the technology impractical in the short and medium term due to its high price. • Sustainable aviation fuel's high value illustrates that production mandates on low CI products can change this equation and make carbon utilisation economically viable at a higher hydrogen cost. • High-value niche chemicals, especially those containing oxygen, are viable candidates for carbon utilisation. Building materials produced from CO 2 and slag utilise relatively limited amounts of CO 2 but are expected to be economically viable with limited support. • The CI of the hydrogen consumed is a critical parameter. Even a relatively limited CI will significantly reduce the net CU of hydrogen- intensive technologies. The CI of power and fuel imports can also have a significant impact.

# Technology

TRL

1 Methanation 2 Methanol 3 Fischer-Tropsch 4 Oxo synthesis

8 (IEA, 2021) 8 (IEA, 2021) 8 (IEA, 2021)

8 (coherentmarketinsights. com, 2022) 7-8 (Mooijman, 2021) 3 (Nippon Steel, 2020) 9 (Jarvis & Samsatli, 2018)

5 Carbonation

6 Xylenes

7 Urea

demand worldwide. Producing large quantities of these may lead to surpluses. In light of these technologies offering promising economics, the carbon utilisation potential will be determined primarily by market demand rather than capital costs or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA). technological readiness levels (TRLs) can be found in another article (Ethakota and Kalpana, 2022). A separate IEA report (IEA, 2021) assessed the TRL for methanation, methanol, and FT at 8 (see Table 5 ). FT has been applied on an industrial scale Technological readiness A concise description of the different since the 1930s but not in combination with the reverse-water-gas-shift step. The same applies to butanal production. Butanal production from CO is a mature technology. However, using CO 2 instead of CO requires a reverse water gas shift step, which is not fully mature, and therefore the TRL of Oxo synthesis production from CO 2 was set at 8 rather than 9. Carbonation is applied on a smaller scale. All the technologies 8 Polyols 8 (World of Chemicals, 2016) 9 Polymeric carbonates 8 (Hubei Sanli Fengxiang, 2022) Table 5 Technological readiness levels of the technologies

VIEW REFERENCES

Joris Mertens Joris.Mertens@kbc.global Mark Krawec Mark.Krawec@kbc.global Ritik Attwal Ritik.Attwal@kbc.global

Decarbonisati n Technolo gy The transition to sustainable fuels & energy Decarb nisation Technolo gies The transition to sustainable fuels & energy Your essential resource for navigating the transition to sustainable fuels and energy .com

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