Review of Power-to-X Demonstration Projects in Europe

Abstract

At the heart of most Power-to-X (PtX) concepts is the utilization of renewable electricity to produce hydrogen through the electrolysis of water. This hydrogen can be used directly as a final energy carrier or it can be converted into, for example, methane, synthesis gas, liquid fuels, electricity, or chemicals. Technical demonstration and systems integration are of major importance for integrating PtX into energy systems. As of June 2020, a total of 220 PtX research and demonstration projects in Europe have either been realized, completed, or are currently being planned. The central aim of this review is to identify and assess relevant projects in terms of their year of commissioning, location, electricity and carbon dioxide sources, applied technologies for electrolysis, capacity, type of hydrogen post-processing, and the targeted field of application. The latter aspect has changed over the years. At first, the targeted field of application was fuel production, for example for hydrogen buses, combined heat and power generation, and subsequent injection into the natural gas grid. Today, alongside fuel production, industrial applications are also important. Synthetic gaseous fuels are the focus of fuel production, while liquid fuel production is severely under-represented. Solid oxide electrolyzer cells (SOECs) represent a very small proportion of projects compared to polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) and alkaline electrolyzers. This is also reflected by the difference in installed capacities. While alkaline electrolyzers are installed with capacities between 50 and 5000 kW (2019/20) and PEM electrolyzers between 100 and 6000 kW, SOECs have a capacity of 150 kW. France and Germany are undertaking the biggest efforts to develop PtX technologies compared to other European countries. On the whole, however, activities have progressed at a considerably faster rate than had been predicted just a couple of years ago.

Remote Renewable Hubs for Carbon-Neutral Synthetic Fuel Production

“…For example, the synthesis of carbon-neutral hydrogen (Borgschulte, 2016), methane (Biswas et al, 2020), methanol (Centi et al, 2020), and ammonia (Ghavam et al, 2021) have all been considered. A number of demonstration projects have been carried out as well (Wulf et al, 2020). Secondly, it has become clear that the technical renewable potential of some European countries (i.e., the maximum amount of renewable electricity that may be produced within a country's borders and exclusive economic zone, while accounting for a variety of land eligibility constraints Ryberg et al, 2018) is insufficient to supply current energy demand levels (e.g., in densely-populated countries like Belgium Berger et al, 2020;Limpens et al, 2020or the United Kingdom MacKay, 2008.…”

Triggering Local Innovation Processes for the Implementation of Sector Coupling Projects: An Integrated Approach

“…The importance of this was confirmed again during the implementation of another research project on the power-to-cold sector coupling path [54]. A review that is helpful in this regard but was only published after the end of our project is in [55].…”

Power-to-X in Denmark: An Analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

“…Even though some of the technologies in the P2X value chain have been known for 100 years, the concept of production of electrofuels is relatively new [9]. However, activities have progressed at a considerably faster rate than had been predicted just a couple of years ago, with a total of 220 P2X research and demonstration projects in Europe either been realized, completed, or currently being planned as of June 2020 [10]. Nevertheless, technical aspects, like the utilization of intermittent renewable resources and the degradation processes [11], as well as non-technical aspects, like regulatory frameworks [12], lack of market formation [13], social acceptance, current prices and lack of comprehensive life-cycle assessment (LCA), challenge the introduction of P2X [14] Figure 1 illustrates a keyword analysis on Scopus, showing a significant increase of publications about the topic "Power-to-X" in recent years, indicating that this concept is indeed discussed in the scientific literature.…”