Techno-economic assessment of upgraded pyrolysis bio-oils for future marine fuels

Power-to-X plants can generate renewable power and convert it into hydrogen or more advanced fuels for hard-to-abate sectors like the maritime industry. Using the Bornholm Energy Island in Denmark as a study case, this study investigates the off-grid production e-bio-fuel as marine fuels. It proposes a production pathway and an analysis method of the oil with a comparison with e-methanol. Production costs, optimal operations and system sizing are derived using an open-source techno-economic linear programming model. The renewable power source considered is a combination of solar photovoltaic and off-shore wind power. Both AEC and SOEC electrolyzer technologies are assessed for hydrogen production. The bio-fuel is produced by slow pyrolysis of straw pellet followed by an upgrading process: hydrodeoxygenation combined with decarboxylation. Due to its novelty, the techno-economic parameters of the upgraded pyrolyzed oil are derived experimentally. Experimental results highlight that the upgrading reaction conditions of 350 °C for 2h with one step of 1h at 150 °C, under 200 bars could effectively provide a fuel with a sufficient quality to meet maritime fuel specifications. It requires a supply of 0.014 kg H2/ kgbiomass. Modeling results shows that a small scale plant constrained by the local availability of CO2 and biomass producing 71.5 GWh of fuel per year (13.3 kton of methanol or 7.9 kton of bio-fuel), reaches production costs of 54.2 €2019/GJmethanol and 19.3 €2019/GJbio−fuel. In a large scale facility, ten times larger, the production costs are reduced to 44.7 €2019/GJmethanol and 18.9 €2019/GJbio−fuel (scaling effects for the methanol pathway). Results show that, when sustainable biomass is available in sufficient quantities, upgraded pyrolysis oil is the cheapest option and the less carbon intensive (especially thanks to the biochar co-product). The pyrolysis unit represents the main costs but co-products revenues such as district heat sale and biochar as a CO2 credit could decrease the costs by a factor three. [Display omitted] •Techno-economic comparison between methanol and upgraded pyrolysis bio-fuel.•A Power-to-X plant was modeled with renewable, storage and fuel production units.•Hydrodeoxygenation and decarboxylation are effective to upgrade bio-oil into bio-fuel.•With biochar revenue, biofuel is cheaper to produce from renewables than methanol.•In a small scale scenario, bio-fuel is produced at 19€/(GJbio−fuel).