(701d) Modeling and Analysis of Electrofuel Production Using CO2 and Nuclear Energy Via Methanol Intermediate

Electrofuels (e-fuels), which are low carbon fuels produced with carbon dioxide (CO₂) and low carbon hydrogen (H₂), can be a potential way to reduce CO₂ emissions in hard-to-decarbonize sectors, such as aviation or heavy duty vehicles and heavy machinery. In this work, we modeled and analyzed an e-fuel production process from that converts CO₂ to electro fuels using methanol as an intermediate; furthermore, the process uses nuclear energy to satisfy plant consumption and to produce H₂ via high temperature electrolysis. Relative to the commonly studied e-fuels from Fischer Tropsch process that only has distillate yield of 60-70% with significant naphtha yield of 30%, the present work increases the distillate (jet and diesel cut) yield to 98% with only 2% naphtha. The modeled process has a carbon conversion of 96%, a process energy efficiency of 50% relative to total thermal and electricity inputs, and life cycle GHG emissions of 5-7 gCO₂e/MJ liquid fuel estimated with the Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies (GREET) model. Additionally, a techno-economic analysis was performed for three scales corresponding to nuclear power of 100, 500, and 1000 MW_e, where minimum fuel selling prices (MFSP) of $6.9-8.6/gal were obtained with current H₂ costs of $3.8-4.0/kg assuming market electricity price of $70/MWh and SOEC stack cost of $155/kw. The e-fuels cost can be reduced to $4.2-6.4/gal with an H₂ cost of $2.0-2.5/kg, generated from low cost electricity of $25-34/MWh; in both cases, the MFSP does not consider tax credits. Finally, the impact of potential tax credits (e.g., 45Q, 40B, 45Z from the Inflation Reduction Act) is also evaluated.