Emissions from Road Vehicles Fuelled by Fischer-Tropsch Based Diesel and Gasoline

Paper in proceeding, 2006

This paper deals with aspects concerning the life cycle aspects regarding Fischer-Tropsch (FT) fuels. Four different scenarios are being analysed based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) -figures. Some important results from the scenario studies based on the evaluated LCA data are: • Production and use of GTL fuel has the potential of contributing about the same or slightly less greenhouse gas to the atmosphere than production and use of conventional diesel. • Production and use of CTL emits more than twice as much greenhouse gases compared to traditional fuels. • Production and use of BTL reduces the emissions of greenhouse gases by 60-90 %. • To substitute 15 % of the EU 15 countries fuel onsumption would an area of 310 000 km² be cultivated with Salix. This corresponds to an area of the size of Poland. It would also require 122 FTplants of 1,6 GW. • Theoretically, it is possible supply the worlds need for energy with biomass. However, planning the production, the localization of plants, building the infrastructure, this will take time and requires heavy long-term investments. • The demand for Natural gas is increasing and there is no way for the US to meet an increased demand from supplying the vehicle fleet with F-T fuels from domestic reserves. With the political situation in the Middle East and in Venezuela, it doesn’t seem likely that this solution will ease the US problems with reducing their oil dependences.