Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Energy Efficiency, and Cost of Synthetic Fuel Production Using Electrochemical CO 2 Conversion and the Fischer–Tropsch Process
Abstract
This study seeks to explore whether electrochemical reduction of CO 2 (using current US average and future low carbon electricity) will become a viable route for the reuse of CO 2 for producing synthetic fuel. This paper presents the results of a technical and economic analysis conducted for a pathway that converts CO 2 released from fossil fuel-burning power plants to diesel fuel via electrochemical reduction of CO 2 to CO and the Fischer–Tropsch process. Currently achievable performance levels for CO 2 electrolyzers and the Fischer–Tropsch process were used to compute key metrics, including (i) cost of the synthetic fuel, (ii) well-to-gate CO 2 emissions, and (iii) overall energy efficiency. An engineering and economic model framework was developed for the investigation. The discounted cash flow analysis method was employed to calculate the cost of diesel fuel using a 500 MW power plant as the CO 2 source. The model takes into account capital expenditures as well as operating costs for the reactors and auxiliaries. The final cost varies from 3.80 to 9.20 dollars per gallon in 2010 US dollars depending on the projected level of technology achieved. The WTG CO 2 emissions vary from 180% (nearly twice) to a reduction of 75% compared to that of the business as usual scenario without carbon sequestration. The well-to-gate energy efficiency varies from 41 to 65%.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Current state-of-the-art CO2 capture involves chemical adsorption using monoethanolamine (MEA) at a cost of $70 USD per ton of CO2 captured.
“The current state-of-the-art involves chemical adsorption using monoethanolamine (MEA) at a cost of $70 USD per ton of CO2 captured.77”
From General Techno-Economic Analysis of CO <sub>2</sub> Electrolysis Systems (2018) · cites this paper as [77]
Cites
IPCC special report on carbon dioxide capture and storage
Metz, B., Davidson, O. R., de Coninck, H., Loos, M., & Meyer, L. (2021) · Cited by 4,875 · see citing works
The Fischer-Tropsch process: 1950-2000
Dry, M. E. (2002) · Catalysis Today · doi:10.1016/s0920-5861(01)00453-9 · Cited by 2,061 · see citing works
Ionic Liquid–Mediated Selective Conversion of CO <sub>2</sub> to CO at Low Overpotentials
Rosen, B. A., Salehi-Khojin, A., Thorson, M. R., Zhu, W., Whipple, D. T., Kenis, P. J. A., & Masel, R. I. (2011) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1209786 · Cited by 1,558 · see citing works
Self-citation(2005) · Van Nostrand's Encyclopedia of Chemistry · doi:10.1002/0471740039.vec1045 · Cited by 1,497 · see citing works
Jhong, H. “., Ma, S., & Kenis, P. J. A. (2013) · Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering · doi:10.1016/j.coche.2013.03.005 · Cited by 824 · see citing works
Self-citationVerma, S., Lu, X., Ma, S., Masel, R. I., & Kenis, P. J. A. (2016) · Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics · doi:10.1039/c5cp05665a · Cited by 497 · see citing works
Self-citationOne-step electrosynthesis of ethylene and ethanol from CO2 in an alkaline electrolyzer
Ma, S., Sadakiyo, M., Luo, R., Heima, M., Yamauchi, M., & Kenis, P. J. A. (2016) · Journal of Power Sources · doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2015.09.124 · Cited by 488 · see citing works
Self-citationDelacourt, C., Ridgway, P. L., Kerr, J. B., & Newman, J. (2008) · Journal of The Electrochemical Society · doi:10.1149/1.2801871 · Cited by 442 · see citing works
Effect of Cations on the Electrochemical Conversion of CO2to CO
Thorson, M. R., Siil, K. I., & Kenis, P. J. A. (2012) · Journal of The Electrochemical Society · doi:10.1149/2.052301jes · Cited by 354 · see citing works
Self-citationDiesel Production from Fischer−Tropsch: The Past, the Present, and New Concepts
Leckel, D. (2009) · Energy & Fuels · doi:10.1021/ef900064c · Cited by 305 · see citing works
Making Fischer−Tropsch Fuels and Electricity from Coal and Biomass: Performance and Cost Analysis
Liu, G., Larson, E. D., Williams, R. H., Kreutz, T. G., & Guo, X. (2010) · Energy & Fuels · doi:10.1021/ef101184e · Cited by 260 · see citing works
Cost and Performance of Carbon Dioxide Capture from Power Generation
Finkenrath, M. (2011) · IEA energy papers · doi:10.1787/5kgggn8wk05l-en · Cited by 247 · see citing works
Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide
Wu, J., Risalvato, F. G., Sharma, P. P., Pellechia, P. J., Ke, F., & Zhou, X. (2013) · Journal of The Electrochemical Society · doi:10.1149/2.030309jes · Cited by 106 · see citing works
Review: An Economic Perspective on Liquid Solar Fuels
Newman, J. S., Hoertz, P. G., Bonino, C. A., et al. (2012) · Journal of The Electrochemical Society · doi:10.1149/2.046210jes · Cited by 90 · see citing works
Available, N. (2009) · doi:10.2172/967195 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Separation of COCO2N2 gas mixture for high-purity CO by pressure swing adsorption
Zhu, L.-Q., Tu, J.-L., & Shi, Y. (1991) · Gas Separation & Purification · doi:10.1016/0950-4214(91)80015-w · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
General Techno-Economic Analysis of CO <sub>2</sub> Electrolysis Systems
Jouny, M., Luc, W., & Jiao, F. (2018) · Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research · doi:10.1021/acs.iecr.7b03514 · Cited by 1,628 · see citing works
Kibria, M. G., Edwards, J. P., Gabardo, C. M., Dinh, C., Seifitokaldani, A., Sinton, D., & Sargent, E. H. (2019) · Advanced Materials · doi:10.1002/adma.201807166 · Cited by 1,331 · see citing works
Pathways to net-zero emissions from aviation
Bergero, C., Gosnell, G., Gielen, D., Kang, S., Bazilian, M., & Davis, S. J. (2023) · Nature Sustainability · doi:10.1038/s41893-022-01046-9 · Cited by 430 · see citing works
Jeanty, P., Scherer, C., Magori, E., Wiesner-Fleischer, K., Hinrichsen, O., & Fleischer, M. (2018) · Journal of CO2 Utilization · doi:10.1016/j.jcou.2018.01.011 · Cited by 224 · see citing works
- Authors
- Li, X., Anderson, P., Jhong, H.-R. M., Paster, M., Stubbins, J. F., & Kenis, P. J. A.
- Affiliations
- Kyushu University (JP)
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- Corresponding author
- Li, Xuping
- Kenis, Paul J. A.
- Venue
- Energy & Fuels
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2016-06-30
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 5980-5989
- ISSN
- 0887-0624 (ISSN-L)
- 1520-5029
- OpenAlex
- W2417152989
- Cited by
- 133
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 5
- FWCI
- 2.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Energy & Fuels (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology
- U.S. Department of Energy (DE-FG02005ER46260, DE-SC0004453)
- National Science Foundation (CTS-05-47617)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts
- Physical Sciences › Chemical Engineering › Catalysis › Catalysts for Methane Reforming
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Energy Engineering and Power Technology › Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems
- Keywords
- electrochemical CO2 reduction, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, synthetic fuels, diesel fuel production, CO2 sequestration, energy efficiency, CO2 electrolyzer, low-carbon electricity, carbon capture and utilization
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
