Can E-Fuels Close the Renewables Power Gap?
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Can e-fuels close the renewables power gap? A review. VGB PowerTech 8 l 2020 Can e-fuels close the renewables power gap? A review. Can e-fuels close the renewables power gap? A review. Thorsten Krol and Christian Lenz Kurzfassung A major challenge in the decarbonization ef- emissions will be limited with a decreasing forts of governments across the world is to volume year per year. The prices will be Können E-Kraftstoffe die Erzeugungslücke maintain the high availability of electric generated on the market within the lower bei den erneuerbaren Energien power during times of renewables unavaila- and upper limits given by the politics to schließen? Ein Rückblick. bility. One option currently under discussion achieve environmental protection goals. is to use renewable excess power to generate Eine große Herausforderung bei den Dekarbo- As renewable generated power is not al- and store e-fuels. In this paper, the availabil- ways available, storage technologies must nisierungsbemühungen der Regierungen welt- ity of excess renewables power at the example weit besteht darin, die hohe Verfügbarkeit von be implemented into the grid environment elektrischer Energie in Zeiten der Nichtverfüg- of Germany is discussed considering re-dis- for the power sector but also as an element barkeit erneuerbarer Energien aufrechtzuer- patches and Tip Capping. The power demand of sector coupling to decarbonize industry halten. Eine Option, die derzeit diskutiert wird, to produce e-fuels, the production processes and transportation sectors. Residual load ist die Nutzung von überschüssiger Energie aus of e-hydrogen, e-methane, e-methanol or e- but also seasonal storage and power avail- erneuerbaren Energien zur Erzeugung und ammonia as well as a cost estimation includ- ability during dark doldrums must be en- Speicherung von E-Kraftstoffen. In diesem Bei- ing a projection of the costs to 2030 will be sured in the future grid. One path will trag wird die Verfügbarkeit von überschüssiger detailed out as a result and summary of sev- erneuerbarer Energie am Beispiel Deutschlands clearly be the use of excess (renewable gen- eral studies. The physical properties of the erated) power to produce e-fuels for long unter Berücksichtigung Redispatch und Spit- fuels are listed resulting from several sources. zenkappung diskutiert. Der Strombedarf zur term storage and usage. Potential e-fuels Finally, based on the total cost of the process- Herstellung der E-Kraftstoffe, die Produktions- like e-hydrogen, e-methane, e-methanol or prozesse von E-Wasserstoff, E-Methan, E-Me- es and their efficiency, the possible future e-ammonia are currently in discussion thanol oder E-Ammoniak sowie eine Kosten- storage and use of excess renewable power as which could be used in standard thermal schätzung einschließlich einer Hochrechnung a fuel to secure power supply during dark generation equipment like Gas Turbines der Kosten bis 2030 werden als Ergebnis mehre- doldrums is discussed. In addition, their po- (GTs) or Reciprocating Internal Combus- rer Studien detailliert dargestellt. Die physika- tential in sector coupling to decarbonization tion Engines (RICE). lischen Eigenschaften der Kraftstoffe werden the industry and transportation sectors as aufgelistet, die sich aus verschiedenen Quellen well as the impact on operation of current Even as of today, the increasing share of ergeben. Schließlich wird auf der Grundlage der generation technologies like gas turbines and renewable produced power based on wind Gesamtkosten der Prozesse und ihrer Effizienz reciprocating internal combustion engines and photovoltaics in the momentary power die mögliche zukünftige Speicherung und Nut- are outlined. and averaged power mix require from the zung von überschüssiger erneuerbarer Energie TSOs and DSOs a high effort to keep the als Brennstoff zur Sicherung der Stromversor- power system balanced. In the years 2013 gung bei Dunkelflaute diskutiert. Darüber hin- Introduction to 2017, the costs and capacity utilized for aus werden ihr Potenzial bei der Sektorkopp- lung zur Dekarbonisierung des Industrie- und In the recent years the development of re- re-dispatch and balancing management Transportsektors sowie die Auswirkungen auf newable generated power has steadily have heavily increased. In 2017 the Tip den Betrieb von modernen Erzeugungstechno- been increased mainly by strong growth of Capping, the cut-off of up to 3 % of renew- logien wie Gasturbinen und Verbrennungsmo- on- and off-shore wind and photovoltaics. able generation to protect the transmission toren skizziert. l This resulted in an increasing effort for the grid from overloading, has been intro- grid operators on Transmission System Op- duced to limit the cost for re-dispatch. Both erator- (TSO) and Distribution System is illustrated in F i g u r e 1. The impact of Operator-level (DSO) for frequency and Tip Capping can be seen in the 12-month voltage stabilization. In addition, legisla- moving average net capacity of the nega- tion has decided for an additional, deeper tive re-dispatch in the bottom part of the step to decarbonization the power sector. graph. The effect of the new market challenges In the years 2017, 2018 and 2019 the re- will be discussed at the example of Germa- dispatch balanced the grid by 3.56 TWh, ny. The balancing of generation and con- 1.65 TWh and -0.61 TWh as excess power sumption will require an extension of the [2] while 4.27 TWh, 4.71 TWh, 5.15 TWh Authors grid as described in the current but also in have been capped by Tip Capping since the future grid development plans [1]. Never- introduction. This results in a potentially Dr. Thorsten Krol theless, looking into the mid- and long- available excess power of 7.83 TWh, Siemens Gas and Power GmbH & Co. KG term targets, a deep decarbonization of the 6.36 TWh and 4.54 TWh which would be Expert Grid stability power sector is decided and will be ensured available for production of synthetic, stor- Muelheim an der Ruhr, Germany by an increasing CO2-tax from 10 €/tCO2 to able fuels for times of dark doldrums and to Dr. Christian Lenz 35 €/tCO between 2021 and 2025 in Ger- enable deep decarbonization as of today. A Siemens Gas and Power GmbH & Co. KG 2 Head of Gas Turbine Marketing, many. In 2026 the certificates will be trad- further expansion of renewable generation Erlangen, Germany ed in the price range between 35 €/tCO2 capacity and Power-to-X capacities would VGB PowerTech - All rights reserved - Alle Rechte vorbehalten - © 2020 Rechte vorbehalten rights reserved - Alle VGB PowerTech - All VGB PowerTech - All rights reserved - Alle Rechte vorbehalten - © 2020 Rechte vorbehalten rights reserved - Alle All VGB PowerTech - and 60 €/tCO2 [2]. Beyond 2026, CO2 allow a sufficient generation of e-fuels for 37 Can e-fuels close the renewables power gap? A review. VGB PowerTech 8 l 2020 hydrogen, gas turbines of any size can be 2,500 upgraded to use blends with natural gas Cummulated monthly re-dispatch capacity 2,000 with manageable efforts and cost. Other technologies for re-electrification like fuel 1,500 re-dispatch reduction cells are not yet available in sizes significant 1,000 re-dispatch increase for power grids or face significant techno- 500 logical challenges. The high NET efficien- cies of gas turbines in combined cycle mode 0 up to 60 % and above are of high impor- 2,500 tance when it comes to use high cost fuels. Net capacity for seasonal storage 2,000 Nevertheless, for some applications it 1,500 12 month moving average seems very advantageous to process hydro- 1,000 gen to other fuels. Methane for example 500 can be used like common natural gas and a 0 large infrastructure around natural gas al- Cumulated monthly re-dispatch in TWh in Cumulated monthly re-dispatch ready exists. Using e-methane will require -500 to avoid gas leaks across the whole chain as -1,000 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 CO2 is captured from the atmosphere and the >25 times higher Green House Gas (GHG) impact of methane might again Fig. 1. Overview about re-dispatch measures in Germany [3]. Top graph: monthly cumulation of power increase and reduction-measures; bottom graph: monthly difference as excess drive the greenhouse effect. Assuming no power available for long term storage. methane leakage, the overall process could be classified as CO2 neutral. Common gas generation, fuel generation for transporta- the Haber Bosch process. The nitrogen ex- power plants could transition to use of syn- tion or for the use in other sectors. tracted from the air by state-of-the-art cry- thetic produced methane without any ef- ogenic air separation systems. forts. Ammonia is currently a hot candidate Production of synthetic fuels and Comparing the energy intensity of produc- for use as marine fuel with the potential to energy intensity tion of the various fuels reveals interesting replace high polluting heavy fuel oil. For insights. The assumptions about the pro- larger use ammonia requires proper cau- The production processes for e-fuels are cess steps and their conversion efficiencies tion because it is very toxic. Further, as car- standard processes known and optimized are taken from C. Hank et. al. [4]. Follow- bon neutral fuel, it does not produce CO2 or for long times already. Hydrogen for exam- ing these assumptions, the total energy CO during combustion but NOx emissions. ple is produced via electrolysis of clean consumption to produce synthetic fuels is (demineralized) water where basically wa- listed in Ta b l e 1. Physical properties of different ter molecules are split into their substitu- For hydrogen and methane, the figures fuels and the impact of their use in ents hydrogen and oxygen by applying an show values to produce the gaseous state electric potential at electrodes. The under- only and with subsequent liquefaction for combustion technologies lying details might get rather complex for comparison purposes.