​Publication - Climate neutrality of the French energy system: overview and impacts of sustainable aviation fuel production​

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Reducing emissions from aviation is a particular challenge. This sector cannot do without the use of carbon-containing molecules (at least for long-haul flights). It is therefore not possible to decarbonise this sector, but it is possible to defossilise it. This involves replacing jet fuel molecules of fossil origin with man-made molecules using carbon from the atmosphere. It is therefore possible to produce biofuel using only biomass, e-fuel using CO2 from the air or biomass and hydrogen (from water electrolysis), or e-biofuel using biomass and hydrogen. These different routes all produce a mixture of molecules equivalent to petrol, diesel and jet fuel.

The aim of this article is twofold:
1. What it would take to achieve carbon neutrality for France, in terms of energy consumption and costs (in particular total energy independence),
2. What is the best process to produce Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) at system level and to quantify at what cost and how much energy is needed to produce them.


The results show that:
1. Electricity production must be massively increased to achieve carbon neutrality and make France energy independent. The model reaches an electricity production of 1,050 TWh (compared to 540 TWh in 2019).
2. SAF production using the e-bio-fuel process is the most advantageous, so producing 100% of SAF using the e-bio-fuel pathway significantly reduces the overall cost of the system.
3. In order to comply with the EU ReFuel regulation (at least 70% of SAF in 2050, including at least 50% e-fuel within the 70%), and taking into account the current level of consumption in France (91 TWh), it is necessary to mobilise 126 TWh of hydrogen to produce SAF, which, if produced by electrolysis, would consume 182 TWh of electricity, i.e. the estimated production of 14 EPRs. But also 50 TWh of lignocellulosic biomass, almost 20% of the estimated sustainable potential (SNBC 2); and 17 MtCO2 to be captured in the atmosphere or on industrial sites producing biogenic CO2, equivalent to the combined emissions of the 10 largest French industrial sites.
4. This production of SAF could be done at a cost of around 235 EUR/MWh, and the inclusion of fuel at such a cost could increase the cost of an air ticket by 30 to 50%.
5. The results of this study are subject to uncertainties on many parameters, but it has been shown for the first time in this article that one of the predominant parameters in the quantity of energy consumed and the price of SAF produced is the ratio of jet fuel to by-product at the output of the Fischer-Tropsch process.

👉 Read the article : https://bit.ly/47d79Ef​

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