Techno-economic analysis of green aviation fuel production using an integrated electrolyzer and a "biomass-battery" storage system

An increase in renewable energy source penetration is seen across the world. However, these energy sources depend on weather-and seasonal conditions compromising the grid balance and the security of supply. Thus, energy storage is needed and especially longterm energy storage to ensure a reliable energy supply. A promising solution is biomass based arbitrage system, which acts as a giant battery, large enough for seasonal storage, a "biomass-battery". To understand the possible gains of this new concept, different agricultural waste-to-energy processing solutions are analyzed in the context of the Danish energy infrastructure. The biomass-battery includes a flexible Power-to-X production chain with a green energy storage capability. In the current analysis, the biomass-battery uses biogas or biomethane in a combined heat and power plant to produce electricity, when there is a lack of renewable power. The burned biogas or biomethane releases CO2 which is captured and intermediately stored before it is used in the last part of the Power-to-X value chain to produce e-kerosene, when surplus electricity is available. The levelized cost of the e-kerosene is used to evaluate the economic performance of the biomass-battery. Overall, it is estimated that in an optimal scenario, 91 million liters of e-kerosene can be produced at a levelized cost of 47 euro/MWh, as compared to 95 euro/MWh when the flexible operation is not used. Therefore, the biomass-battery concept could very well be a competitive option in a future scenario with sufficient availability of renewable energy and high demand for liquid green fuels.(c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/).