Life-Cycle Assessment of Power-to-Liquid Kerosene Produced from Renewable Electricity and CO2 from Direct Air Capture in Germany

Decarbonization of the aviation sector is crucial to reaching the global climate targets. We quantified the environmental impacts of Power-to-Liquid kerosene produced via Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis from electricity and carbon dioxide from air as one broadly discussed alternative liquid jet fuel. We applied a life-cycle assessment considering a well-to-wake boundary for five impact categories including climate change and two inventory indicators. Three different electricity production mixes and four different kerosene production pathways in Germany were analyzed, including two Direct Air Capture technologies, and compared to fossil jet fuel. The environmental impacts of Power-to-Liquid kerosene varied significantly across the production pathways. E.g., when electricity from wind power was used, the reduction in CO2-eq. compared to fossil jet fuel varied between 27.6–46.2% (with non-CO2 effects) and between 52.6–88.9% (without non-CO2 effects). The reduction potential regarding CO2-eq. of the layout using low-temperature electrolysis and high-temperature Direct Air Capture was lower compared to the high-temperature electrolysis and low-temperature Direct Air Capture. Overall, the layout causing the lowest environmental impacts uses high-temperature electrolysis, low-temperature Direct Air Capture and electricity from wind power. This paper showed that PtL-kerosene produced with renewable energy could play an important role in decarbonizing the aviation sector.