Hydrogen enhancement potential of synthetic biofuels manufacture in the European context: A techno-economic assessment

Potential to increase biofuels output from a gasification-based biorefinery using external hydrogen supply (enhancement) was investigated. Up to 2.6 or 3.1-fold increase in biofuel output could be attained for gasoline or methane production over reference plant configurations, respectively. Such enhanced process designs become economically attractive over non-enhanced designs when the average cost of low-carbon hydrogen falls below 2.2–2.8 €/kg, depending on the process configuration. If all sustainably available wastes and residues in the European Union (197 Mt/a) were collected and converted only to biofuels, using maximal hydrogen enhancement, the daily production would amount to 1.8–2.8 million oil equivalent barrels. This total supply of hydrogen enhanced biofuels could displace up to 41–63 per cent of the EU (European Union)'s road transport fuel demand in 2030, again depending on the choice of process design.