System study of carbon dioxide (CO_2) capture in bio-based motor fuel production

摘要

A number of different technologies for producing renewable motor fuels have been studied; some effects of applying carbon dioxide (CO_2) capture to the production of renewable motor fuels are described in this paper. Some of the technologies studied are well suited for CO_2 capture. However, it is shown that the advantages with CO_2 capture for these technologies are not enough to offset their shortcomings described in previous studies, which show that the largest CO_2 reduction from biomass in Sweden may be achieved by producing fuel pellets for coal substitution or using the biomass in combined heat and power plants. A conclusion of the present paper is that even with CO_2 capture added to the respective technology, it is inefficient to use renewable resources for motor fuel production if the aim is to achieve as high CO_2 emission reduction as possible per input of biomass. Therefore, the large Swedish subsidies of the production of motor fuels appear sub-optimal, also when the possibility of CO_2 capture is considered. Nevertheless, incorporating CO_2 capture in the production of renewable motor fuels from biomass might be a cost-effective way of reducing CO_2 emissions.