Technical and Environmental Assessment of Electrochemical Biogas Conversion for Fischer Tropsch-fuel Production

The production of low-carbon transport fuels from organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) offers a solution that simultaneously addresses emissions from the transportation sector as well as the challenges associated with OFMSW management. This study presents a process simulation and life cycle assessment (LCA) of a novel pathway integrating electro-partial oxidation of methane (e-POM) assisted solid oxide electrolyzer (SOEC) co-electrolysis and Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis. The proposed pathway leads to a biogas to fuel carbon conversion efficiency of 50.2%, while reducing energy demand as compared to conventional SOECs. LCA results indicate that the fuel produced from the proposed pathway can lead to substantial reduction in environmental impacts as compared to fossil fuels (40% lower global warming potential). The key environmental hotspots in the production process are the energy demands of the electrolyzer, CO2 scrubbing using diethanolamine, and fugitive methane emissions from anaerobic digestion. These results highlight the potential of this proposed pathway in decarbonization of transportation fuels.