Techno-economic analysis of biofuel production plants producing biofuels using fisher tropsch synthesis

Abstract

To address rising climate change problems, one significant task is reducing pollution in the transport sector by substituting fossil with biomass-based fuels. One of the potential production methods is by Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis. Both gasoline and diesel types of fuel can be produced. For FT fuels a carbon containing feedstock is needed as an end product, it can be processed in multiple ways using various systems, however the main parts of production are biomass preparation and gasification, where afterwards clean-up of the synthetic gas is required. A liquid form from the syngas is achieved via FT synthesis, after which hydroprocessing is needed for separating naphtha, diesel, and lighter-molecular-weight hydrocarbons or other components. For comparison of biofuel plants, the biomass of choice, production processes and end products were analysed, as well as economic feasibility of technologies, to determine whether the costs and investments required are reasonable for the possible outcome.