Influence of grid electricity Sample Clauses

Influence of grid electricity. CO2 footprint‌ The origin of the utilized electricity determines the CO2 emissions associated with the production of DME from the large-scale system. For the base case an average CO2 footprint of 600 g/kWh is assumed. This value is expected to decrease in the future. Reasons are, for instance, the expansion of renewable electricity sources and the phase-out of coal fired power plants. However, it is very uncertain at what rate the value will decrease. To address this uncertainty a variation of the assumed CO2 footprint was performed (cf. Figure 15). The production is simultaneously causing and consuming CO2. Thus, it is reasonable to investigate the net CO2 balance, which is defined as the difference between caused and consumed CO2. This assessment cannot replace a detailed life cycle assessment (which is done in ALIGN-CCUS Work Package 4). However, it can deliver first approximations on the ecological meaningfulness of the product. The analysis reveals that the emission balance is zero for a CO2 footprint of 112 g/kWh. This means that at this footprint the product DME has utilized the same amount of CO2 which was released to produce the necessary amount of electricity for DME production. Higher footprints lead to an emission balance where the production causes more CO2 than it consumes, whereas lower footprints lead to an emission balance where the production consumes more CO2 than it produces. Current expansion targets for renewable electricity sources and the chosen strategy to phase-out coal fired power plants will prohibit that the favored low CO2 footprint of grid electricity is to be reached anytime soon. Thus, from a solely ecological perspective, the production of synthetic fuels with continuous grid electricity supply should be avoided as long as the provided grid electricity has such a high ecological impact.