Analysis of Greenhouse Gas Emission Characteristics of Fischer–Tropsch Fuel Production Processes under Feedstock Substitution

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides a clear methodology for gate-to-gate emission analysis of FT processes with CCU, useful for future life-cycle studies.

🏢実務担当者:Offers insights on emission reduction levers (CHP, CO2 recovery) for low-carbon fuel production, applicable to process design.

🏛政策担当者:Highlights the need for system boundaries in evaluating CCU's climate benefits, informing carbon accounting rules and incentives.

As global temperature rise exceeds 1.5°C and climate change intensifies, achieving carbon neutrality has emerged as an urgent challenge, and carbon capture and utilization (CCU) has attracted increasing attention as a key strategy for the transition toward net-zero emissions. This study quantitatively compares greenhouse gas (GHG) emission characteristics of Fischer–Tropsch (FT)-based diesel production processes under feedstock substitution, using natural gas and CCU-derived captured CO2 as alternative inputs, within a gate-to-gate system boundary. The gate-to-gate approach was adopted to isolate and evaluate the impact of feedstock substitution and process configuration on emissions within the fuel production stage, excluding upstream and downstream influences. Aspen Plus-based process simulations were employed to establish a conventional natural gas-based FT process as the reference case, and four scenarios were developed, including captured CO2 utilization, additional CO2 recovery within the process, combined heat and power (CHP) integration, and an integrated configuration. The results indicate that feedstock substitution and process configuration significantly alter the emission structure of FT fuel production, with energy consumption—particularly electricity and steam—identified as the dominant contributor to total emissions. Scenarios applying captured CO2 as feedstock (Scenarios 1 and 2) reduced the contribution of direct process emissions (Scope 1) to approximately 5% and 1%, respectively; however, increased electricity and steam demand led to an expanded share of indirect emissions (Scope 2). The CHP-integrated scenario (Scenario 3) achieved the lowest overall emissions by minimizing external energy dependence through internal energy self-sufficiency. In contrast, the fully integrated scenario (Scenario 4) exhibited increased emissions due to higher process complexity and additional energy requirements. While the gate-to-gate framework enables a focused assessment of process-level emission characteristics, it does not capture emissions associated with upstream feedstock production, CO2 capture, energy supply, or downstream fuel use. Therefore, future work should extend this analysis to a full life cycle assessment (LCA) to comprehensively evaluate system-wide emission impacts and the overall implications of feedstock substitution.

• semanticscholar https://doi.org/10.62765/kjlca.2026.27.1.41first seen 2026-06-09 04:43:52