The use of electric fuels (e-fuels) enables CO2-neutral mobility and opens therefore an alternative to fossil-fuel-fired engines or battery-powered electric motors. This paper compares the cost-effectiveness of Fischer-Tropsch diesel, methanol, and hydrogen stored as cryogenic liquid (LH2) or in form of liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs). The production cost of those fuels are to a large extent driven by the energy-intensive electrolytic water splitting. The option of producing e-fuels in Germany competes with international locations with excellent conditions for renewable energy harvesting and thus very low levelized cost of electricity. We developed a mathematical model that covers the entire process chain. Starting with the production of the required resources such as fresh water, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, electrical and thermal energy, the subsequent chemical synthesis, the transport to filling stations in Germany and finally the energetic utilization of the fuels in the vehicle. We found that the choice of production site can have a major impact on the mobility cost using the respective fuels. Especially in case of diesel production, the levelized cost of electricity driven by the full load hours of the applied renewable energy source have a huge impact. An LOHC-based system is shown to be less dependent on the kind of electricity source compared to other technologies due to its comparatively low electricity consumption and the low cost for the hydrogenation units. The length of the transportation route and the price of the filling station infrastructure, on the other hand, clearly increase mobility cost for LOHC and LH2.
Electric fuels (e-fuels) enable CO2-neutral mobility and are therefore an alternative to battery-powered electric vehicles. This paper compares the cost-effectiveness of Fischer-Tropsch diesel, methanol and Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers. The production costs of those fuels are to a large part driven by the energy-intensive electrolytic hydrogen production. In this paper, we apply a multi-level electricity market model to calculate future hourly electricity prices for various electricity market designs in Germany for the year 2035. We then assess the economic efficiency of the different fuels under various future market conditions. In particular, we use the electricity price vectors derived from an electricity market model calibrated for 2035 as an input for a mathematical model of the entire process chain from hydrogen production and chemical bonding to the energetic utilization of the fuels in a vehicle. Within this model, we perform a sensitivity analysis, which quantifies the impact of various parameters on the fuel production cost. Most importantly, we consider prices resulting from own model calculations for different energy market designs, the investment cost for the electrolysis systems and the carbon dioxide purchase price. The results suggest that the use of hydrogen, which is temporarily bound to Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers, is a favorable alternative to the more widely discussed synthetic diesel and methanol.