The peer-reviewed article “Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production through power-to-liquid (PtL): A combined techno-economic and life cycle assessment” which was published in the Elsevier journal Energy Conversion and Management, underlines that PtL technology holds significant potential to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to the defossilisation of the aviation industry. However, supportive policies are essential for further deployment at a large scale.
This study presents a techno-economic-environmental assessment of a PtL system in the UK, for producing SAF and offers valuable insights that can be compared with fossil jet fuel. This SAF production system includes a direct air capture (DAC) unit, an off-shore wind farm, an alkaline electrolyser, and a refinery plant. The heat integration between the refinery and the DAC unit enhances the system’s energy performance, while water integration between the DAC and refinery units and the electrolyser reduces the demand for fresh water.
This paper also highlights that the Minimum Jet Fuel Selling Price (MJSP) is Operating Expenses (OPEX) intensive due to high electricity consumption. Moreover, the Well-to-Wake (WtWa) life cycle assessment (LCA) shows that the global warming potential (GWP) of the SAF is 4 times lower than the one of fossil jet fuel and thus falls below the UK aviation mandate threshold of 50 % emissions reduction compared to fossil jet fuel.
The study concludes by estimating the required monetary value of SAF certificates for different scenarios under the UK SAF mandate guidelines, showing that SAF certificates could help to break even with conventional jet fuel.
Read the full paper here.
