4.4.1 Low-carbon fuel and heat production

Course subject(s) 4. Towards climate neutral energy systems

In this video we will cover the major options for low-carbon fuel and heat production. The three main alternatives here are bio-energy, hydrogen and other fuels, and fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage.

Key takeaways:

  • Biofuels already play a substantial role in the global energy system, particularly for heating and to a lesser extent for transport. There are various feedstocks and conversion processes which can be used to produce biofuels. This fuel does, however, have a number of issues including emissions in the supply chain, carbon debt and land-use change problems
  • Hydrogen fuels also already occupy a position in the global energy system, for industrial processes. This fuel can be produced with low-emissions by either generating so called green-hydrogen whereby renewable electricity is used for hydrogen production, or blue-hydrogen when it is produced from fossil fuels but associated carbon emissions are captured and stored
  • For fossil fuel with CCS, there are a number of options to store the carbon, most commonly this is in depleted oil or natural gas reservoirs but it is also possible to store in aquifers
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Based on a work at https://online-learning.tudelft.nl/courses/designing-a-climate-neutral-world-an-introduction//
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