Modeling and analysis of synthetic liquid fuel production from CO₂ and nuclear energy using methanol-to-diesel process

Synthetic fuels produced from CO₂ and electricity—so-called electrofuels (e-fuels)—are drop-in blendstocks for petroleum fuels. Nuclear energy is an attractive energy source for e-fuel production because it is able to provide steady heat and power with low carbon footprint. We modeled and evaluated the cost and environmental footprint of e-fuel production in the distillate range (jet fuel and diesel) for three nuclear power scales—100, 500, and 1000 MW_e—via methanol and olefins intermediates leveraging commercial or high technology readiness level (TRL) processes. Compared to the commonly studied e-fuels from the Fischer-Tropsch process that often has a distillate yield of <70%, with the rest being low-value naphtha, the proposed process via a methanol intermediate increases the product selectivity, yielding 96% distillate and only 4% naphtha. The modeled process has a carbon conversion ratio of 98%, and a process energy efficiency of 56% relative to the total equivalent nuclear electricity input. The e-fuel plant economics and GHG emissions were estimated by considering CO₂ collected from ethanol plants adjacent to nuclear power plants. The estimated minimum fuel selling price (MFSP) of e-fuel is in the range of $5.5-$8.9/gal depending on e-fuel plant scale, electricity cost, and CO₂ transportation distance. The corresponding e-fuels life cycle GHG emissions are estimated to be in the range of 5-6 gCO₂e/MJ of liquid fuel using the R&D Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies (R&D GREET) model.