Power-to-Methanol at Refineries as a Precursor to Green Jet Fuel Production: a Simulation and Assessment Study

The growing interest in power-to-methanol (PtM) in policy, industry and academia illustrates the need for studies assessing the concept's potential in the context of energy transition. Although there are already studies, which evaluate PtM in a generic way, application-specific analyzes for refineries considering the option of further jet fuel synthesis are lacking. This study provides a unique assessment of the techno-economic feasibility and the environmental impacts of PtM plants at refineries as a precursor to green jet fuel production. The utilization of the flue gas of a single refinery, the Heide refinery, is sufficient for the production of 415,095 t_MeOH/y. As methanol production via PtM avoids 2.50 kg_CO2eq/kg compared to conventional methanol, it is favorable in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. However, net production costs are 2.9-4.6 times higher than the market price. Subsequent jet fuel synthesis allows a production of at least 83 kt_Jet/y on basis of the refinery's flue gas.