Renewable Methanol

Introduction: Despite a number of successful European pilot projects and early commercial activities, there remains little eminent acknowledgement of renewable methanol as alternative transport fuel within the current political discourse on future sustainable mobility in the EU. To a large extent this is due to a lack of research findings on the specific potentials of renewable methanol as a viable fuel alternative in the European context. In order to expand the existing knowledge base in this respect, in this Master's thesis it is assessed how renewable methanol technology can contribute to achieving the three explicit objectives of EU biofuels policy: Greenhouse Gas Savings, Security of Supply and Employment. This research objective is approached by way of quantitative and qualitative analyses which in this form have not yet been undertaken. With regard to Greenhouse Gas Savings, the potentials of renewable methanol are assessed by way of the Well-to-Wheels (WTW) analysis method for different renewable methanol pathways, as well as comparative fossil- and biofuel pathways. The findings of this analysis demonstrate that renewable methanol technology holds high potentials and favourable prospects: while the EU regulations on minimum greenhouse gas emissions savings of biofuels will become gradually more stringent in the coming years, the investigated renewable methanol fuel pathways not only generally comply with these regulations but far surpass them. In some cases, emissions savings of more than 90% compared to both fossil fuels and first generation biofuels can be achieved. In view of the policy objective of Security of Supply, the feedstock-flexibility of renewable methanol technology is found to be a fundamental prospect since it enables the utilisation of wastes and other feedstocks which so far have been under-utilised in the production of biofuels. [...]

Inhalt
|List of figures, tables and images|x1|Introduction: the challenge of reducing oil dependence in an increasingly mobile global society|11.1|Alternative mobility concepts, EU transport sector greenhouse gas emissions and petroleum import dependency|21.2|1G and 2G biofuels, renewable methanol and the need for EU-specific research on ist potentials and viability|41.3|Research questions, analytical approach and description of study structure|62|Analytical framework and methodology|82.1|Analysis system boundaries within sustainable energy planning and conceptualisation of the research context|82.2|Technology and choice awareness in the societal context|92.3|The Well-to-Wheels (WTW) analysis method|113|Technical overview of methanol and ist production methods|153.1|Basic chemical properties and current uses of methanol|153.2|A brief jaunt into the history of alcohol fuels|163.4|Production methods for renewable methanol|20[...]4|Well-to-Wheels analysis|264.1|Introduction to calculations|264.2|WTW GHG emissions and efficiencies of renewable methanol pathways|28[...]4.3|Comparison of renewable methanol- and comparative fossil- and biofuel pathways|37[...]4.4|Conclusions|455|Socio-economic implications of large-scale renewable methanol technology deployment in the EU|475.1|Supply and demand for bioenergy resources in view of ambitious sustainability criteria|485.2|Prospective outlook A: mitigating competing resource demands and creating large-scale employment through bio-methanol|525.3|Prospective outlook B: Creating employment and improving the EU trade balance by substituting biofuel imports with domestic bio-methanol|585.4|Conclusions|636|Conclusions on the core analyses|657|Political recommendations|687.1|Implementing the ILUC Proposal|697.2|Implementing a Pump Act|707.3|Implementing an Open Fuel Standard|728|Discussion of results and identification of further research needs|748.1|Well-to-Wheels analysis|748.2|Socio-economic implications of large-scale renewable methanol deployment|758.3|Political recommendations|769|Sources|80Annex 1|Pathway-specific data inputs for the WTW analysis|88Annex 2|Categorization of biomass potentials in the base study by Elbersen et al. [2012]|94Annex 3|Open Fuel Standard Bill|96