Power to gas : Bridging renewable electricity to the transport sector

Abstract: Globally, transport accounts for a significant part of the total energy utilization and is heavily dominated by fossil fuels. The main challenge is how the greenhouse gas emissions in road transport can be addressed. Moreover, the use of fossil fuels in road transport makes most countries or regions dependent on those with oil and/or gas assets. With that said, the question arises of what can be done to reduce the levels of greenhouse gas emissions and furthermore reduce dependency on oil? One angle is to study what source of energy is used.Biomass is considered to be an important energy contributor in future transport and has been a reliable energy source for a long time. However, it is commonly known that biomass alone cannot sustain the energy needs in the transport sector by far.This work presents an alternative where renewable electricity could play a significant role in road transport within a relatively short time period. Today the amount of electricity used in road transport is negligible but has a potential to contribute substantially. It is suggested that the electricity should be stored, or “packaged” in a chemical manner, as a way of conserving the electrical energy. One way of doing so is to chemically synthesize fuels. It has been investigated how a fossil free transport system could be designed, to reach high levels of self-sufficiency. According to the studies, renewable electricity could have the single most important role in such a system.   Among the synthetic fuels, synthetic methane (also called synthetic biogas) is the main focus of the thesis. Hydrogen is obtained through water electrolysis, driven by electricity (preferable renewable), and reacted with carbon dioxide to produce synthetic methane. The concept of the mentioned process goes under the name Power to Gas. The electricity to fuel efficiency of such a process reaches about 50 %, but if utilizing excess heat produced during the electrolysis and the reaction, the total process efficiency can reach much higher levels.The economics of the process is as important as the technology itself in terms of large scale implementation. The price of electricity and biogas are the most important influences on the economic viability. The minimum “spread” between purchase and selling price can be determined to obtain a general perception of the economic feasibility. In this case biogas must be sold about 2.6 times higher than purchased electricity per kWh.