How replacing fossil fuels with electrofuels could influence the demand for renewable energy and land area
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2023

During recent years, electrofuels (fuels from electricity, water, and carbon) have gained increased interest as substitute for fossil fuels in all energy and chemical sectors. The feasibility of electrofuels has been assessed from a range of aspects but no study has assessed the land area needed if scaling up the production based on renewables. The amount of land on Earth is limited and the competition for land, in a long-term perspective, imposes a risk of, e.g., increased food prices and biodiversity losses. The aim of this paper is to assess how much land area it would require if all fossil fuels were substituted by electrofuels (‘All electrofuel’-scenario) and compare this with the area needed if all fossil fuels were substituted by bioenergy (‘All biomass’-scenario) or by electricity (‘All electric’-scenario). Each scenario represents extreme cases towards fully renewable energy systems to outline the theoretical area needed. Main conclusions are (1) the electricity demand, if substituting all fossil fuels with electrofuels, is huge (1540 EJ) but technically obtainable, demanding 1.1% of the Earth's surface, for solar panels, in the most optimistic case, and (2) the sustainable technical potential for biomass cannot alone substitute all fossil fuels, unless radical energy demand reductions.

E-Fuels

Fully renewable energy systems

Area footprint

Synthetic fuels

Hydrogen

PTX

Area efficiency

Power-to-X

Författare

Anders Winther Rennuit-Mortensen

Syddansk Universitet

Kasper Dalgas Rasmussen

Syddansk Universitet

Maria Grahn

Chalmers, Mekanik och maritima vetenskaper, Maritima studier

Smart Energy

26669552 (eISSN)

Vol. 10 100107

Jämställdhet för excellens (Genie)

Stiftelsen Chalmers tekniska högskola, 2019-01-01 -- 2028-12-31.

The Competence Centre for Catalysis, KCK 2022-2026

Umicore Denmark ApS (KCK2022-2026), 2022-01-01 -- 2026-12-31.

Preem AB (KCK2022-2026), 2022-01-01 -- 2026-12-31.

Scania AB (Dnr:2021-036543Pnr:52689-1), 2022-01-01 -- 2026-12-31.

Johnson Matthey (2500123383), 2022-01-01 -- 2026-12-31.

Volvo Group (PO:2435702-000), 2022-01-01 -- 2026-12-31.

Drivkrafter

Hållbar utveckling

Styrkeområden

Transport

Energi

Ämneskategorier (SSIF 2011)

Annan naturresursteknik

Energisystem

DOI

10.1016/j.segy.2023.100107

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2025-04-23