The Methanol-to-Gasoline (MTG) process is a method to produce synthetic gasoline developed by Mobil in the 1970s. Because the gasoline composition is essentially engineered, the synthetic gasoline can have a very similar composition to crude-based fuels, making it a drop-in fuel for existing cars.
Producing gasoline from methanol with methanol derived from syngas means that any source of syngas, including biomass or a combination of captured CO2 and electrolysed H2. Such synthetic gasoline or eGasoline can therefore also be sustainable.
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AWOE: A World of Energy
AWOE is dedicated to providing insights into the renewable energy solutions, either already existing or in development.
By collecting figures from recognised sources in the scientific community, AWOE aims to highlight benefits and drawbacks of each solution without any bias. The overarching conclusion is the need for more collaboration between the different fields as no solution is a silver bullet applicable everywhere and at any time.
Technical insights and reports of Life Cycle Analyses intend to foster imagination to combine the numerous already existing solutions and to underline that no solution is (yet) truly zero-emission or covering all human needs.
Alkaline electrolysers are designed for steady-state operation at nominal power and do struggle with part-load operation and intermittence of power supply.
Appropriate methods of part-load operation and response to power supply fluctuation are required due to the increasing share of renewable electricity on the grid, resources that are intrinsically unpredictible and fluctuating.
A combination of electrolyser design measures and operating strategies allow reducing the minimal load that such electrolysers can accept and therefore keep them online even when power resources are highly fluctuating.
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The Haber-Bosch process is the most common industrial method of production of ammonia. The process converts hydrogen (generally from natural gas) and nitrogen (from air) into ammonia with the help of an iron-based catalyst.
The main sources of energy consumption in this process are the production of hydrogen from natural gas and the recycling of unconverted gases (reheating and recompression).
While the conventional methane-based Haber-Bosch process releases about 1.5-1.6 tCO2/tNH3, an alternative renewable-based approach can cut emissions down to 0.08 tCO2/tNH3
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Ammonia is a carbon-free species currently mainly used as a fertiliser, a cleaning product or the basis for pharmaceutical applications. However, ammonia could also be used as a fuel or as an energy carrier because of its large content in hydrogen.
Compared to hydrogen, ammonia is easier to store as it is liquid at moderate temperature (-33°C vs -252°C for hydrogen), requiring less energy to liquify and mainly being less sensitive to boil-off. Yet, ammonia has adverse properties to be used in internal combustion engines: it is hard to auto-ignite and its flame propagation speed is low.
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