An assessment of the economics of Power to Liquid as energy storage

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Economic assessment of Power-to-Liquid processes – Influence of electrolysis technology and operating conditions
The study is very long, but towards the end, they finally get to something most people can relate to.

For the 2050 scenario depicted in Fig. 12(b), approximately 17% of the production cost can be covered by the revenues of the syncrude. Without any subsidies a deficit of 0.17 €2020/kWhch is generated. If all proposed subsidies are applied, the share of cost coverage can be increased from 17% to 28%, which results in a deficit of 0.09 €2020/kWhch.
A minimal fuel selling price of 0.13 €2020/kWhch (1.29 €2020/l) in the case of diesel was determined for this scenario. This value is excluding taxes and logistics, which would incur for the end consumer.

So this is a Diesel price of about $5.27 a gallon.
While this may seem high, if the alternative is no heavy transport, no air travel, and minimal sea shipping, it's not too bad.

 

[nvflash]

Economic assessment of Power-to-Liquid processes – Influence of electrolysis technology and operating conditions
The study is very long, but towards the end, they finally get to something most people can relate to.

So this is a Diesel price of about $5.27 a gallon.
While this may seem high, if the alternative is no heavy transport, no air travel, and minimal sea shipping, it's not too bad.

Exactly what problem is trying to be solved here?

 

[longview]

Exactly what problem is trying to be solved here?

Energy sustainability from my perspective.
We have some decent ways to generate as much energy as we need (Enough for everyone alive to have a first world lifestyle),
but the energy, like from photovoltaic Solar, is not in a form that can cover all of our demands.
The duty cycle alone, means that ~14 hours out of every 24 day, would be without power.
By the time solar can cover peak daytime loads, Spring and Fall will see massive surpluses.
Power to liquid, is an energy storage methodology, that allows alternative energy to be stored as hydrocarbon
fuels for existing demands.

 

[nvflash]

Energy sustainability from my perspective.
We have some decent ways to generate as much energy as we need (Enough for everyone alive to have a first world lifestyle),
but the energy, like from photovoltaic Solar, is not in a form that can cover all of our demands.
The duty cycle alone, means that ~14 hours out of every 24 day, would be without power.
By the time solar can cover peak daytime loads, Spring and Fall will see massive surpluses.
Power to liquid, is an energy storage methodology, that allows alternative energy to be stored as hydrocarbon
fuels for existing demands.

It sounds promising but I don't really think it would catch on with the Climate Change crowd as it's still burning hydrocarbons into the atmosphere.

Better would be to use it to extract hydrogen fuels and use that to power generation, as the only byproduct should be water.

 

[longview]

It sounds promising but I don't really think it would catch on with the Climate Change crowd as it's still burning hydrocarbons into the atmosphere.

Better would be to use it to extract hydrogen fuels and use that to power generation, as the only byproduct should be water.

The elegance of the solution is that the fuel can be 100% carbon neutral.
Burning the fuel produce no new CO2, since the carbon was extracted from atmospheric CO2.
It is also completely compatible with existing distribution infrastructure.
The limitations (if you can call it that) is that the process only produces 100 octane fuels,
but that is within the capabilities of all modern IC vehicles.