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.