Title:
Prospective Life Cycle Assessment of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel FT-SPK Produced via Biomass Gasification
Author(s):
Matschegg, D., Kumpan, K., Dißauer, C., Strasser, C., Bacovsky, D., Stern, T.
Document(s):
Paper
Poster
Abstract:
The demand for sustainable aviation fuels is projected to be steadily increasing, due to the growing aviation sector and simultaneous defossilization targets. In addition, sustainable aviation fuels provide the opportunity to build supply chains and thereby strengthen resilience. The current demand is met by Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids, based on waste oils and fats. Since this kind of feedstocks are limited, additional technological pathways will be required to meet future demand. The present study focuses on the pathway Gasification Fischer-Tropsch and the resulting fuel: Fischer-Tropsch synthetic paraffinic kerosene (FT-SPK). The aim of the study is to calculate the global warming potential of FT-SPK, both with a Life Cycle Assessment and a prospective Life Cycle Assessment. Data for the inventory assessment was derived from the 1 MW demonstration gasifier including Fischer-Tropsch unit “Syngas Platform Vienna”. The data was upscaled to industrial scale and made available for the present study. The life cycle assessment results in a Global Warming Potential of 12.6 gCO2-eq/MJ FT-SPK produced from bark and 22.7 gCO2-eq/MJ FT-SPK produced from miscanthus. The Global Warming Potential calculated using prospective Life Cycle Assessment amounts to 3.8 and 1.8 gCO2-eq/MJ FT-SPK produced from bark, and 12.0 and 8.3 gCO2-eq/MJ FT-SPK produced from miscanthus, depending on the scenario applied. This approach allows for the comparison of current and projected future environmental impacts of FT-SPK and fossil kerosene. In a next step, the prospective life cycle impacts will be further investigated by calculating additional impact categories to identify potential trade-offs between them.
Keywords:
biomass gasification, global warming potential, life cycle assessment (LCA), sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)
Topic:
Sustainability, Impacts, Policies and Systems Analysis
Subtopic:
Climate impacts and GHG performance
Event:
34th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
2CV.10.3
Pages:
374 - 376
ISBN:
978-88-89407-27-1
Paper DOI:
10.5071/34thEUBCE2026-2CV.10.3
Price:
FREE
