VTT, Neste et al in Search for E-Fuels Breakthrough

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Finland, a partnership led by VTT and Neste aimed at using sustainable electricity and sequestered carbon dioxide to make fuels received €3.3M (about $4 million USD) in funding from Business Finland. Altogether, EUR 6 million (about $7.2 million USD) is invested in the development of the production of fuels in Finland.

The e-fuels backstory
Elsewhere, it has been called power-to-X technology or power-to-liquids — and in some ways, it is closely related to the production of green hydrogen, which is accomplished by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using electrolysis.

What’s different here? Beyond standard room-temperature electrolysis, there’s high-temperature electrolysis, which uses heat as well as power. That’s a higher-efficiency process — also, it can tap into waste heat as a source, often available in industrial settings. It’s not well known, for example, that you can split water at 2500 degrees (a temperature associated with plasma gasification) without using any electricity at all. Most high-temperature electrolysis technologies stay well south of that temperature level, focusing in around the 700 degree level.

Here, the aim is to produce a mixed gas of hydrogen and carbon monoxide required in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis by feeding carbon dioxide and water vapor directly into an electrolyser operating at a temperature of about 700°C. This E-fuel project aims at an efficiency improvement by 10-15 percentage points compared to the efficiency of current technologies in the production of e-fuels not only via high-temp electrolysis — but, also, heat integration of electrolysis, carbon dioxide sequestration and fuel synthesis.

In all, you have several operating processes here. There’s a solid oxide electrolyzer cell, carbon dioxide sequestration and Fischer-Tropsch fuel synthesis. The two-year E-fuel research project aims at developing integration of hydrogen production through high-temperature electrolysis, and jumping Finland to the front of the line in terms of e-fuels.

The market drivers
Global emissions from transportation sector currently cover about 15% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. The market for synthetic fuels that has emerged in the wake of an acute need to reduce emissions is expected to grow to millions of tons by 2030 in Europe alone. The market for electrolysis technology, which is a key to the production of synthetic fuels, is expected to grow more than 20-fold in the coming five years. The production of e-fuels is often referred to by the names power-to-liquids (PtL) or power-to-X (PtX).

So, why not hydrogen? First, the cars are expensive, think 50,000+ for now. And, there’s hardly any re-fueling available, at present, anywhere.

So, that’s why hydrocarbons made as e-fuels still get focus. For one, they fit into the existing vehicles and infrastructure. Second, they are carbon-negative.

Neste’s project is linked with the Veturi Ecosystem for new solutions for reducing the use of crude oil. Neste’s globally expertise in the production and distribution of liquid fuels based on renewable raw materials offers a commercial path for solutions that can be developed in the E-fuel project.

Of the project partners, Convion is developing industrial-scale high temperature electrolysis in its own parallel project. Convion’s competence in fuel cell technology also provides an excellent foundation for the development and commercialization of an electrolyser suitable for the production of hydrogen. In its products Convion utilizes SOC fuel cells manufactured in Finland by Elcogen, which are world-leaders in efficiency. The technology developed in the project and its integration will be tested in cooperation with the other project partners, Neste and VTT. READ MORE