The project "iNEW 2.0 – Incubator Sustainable Electrochemical Value Chains" focuses on the research and development of novel and efficient electrolysis processes for application in sustainable Power-to-X (PtX) value chains. These include Power-to-Syngas, Power-to-CO, Power-to-Methanol, Power-to-Formates, Power-to-Chemicals and Power-to-Ammonia. Scientists of the Forschungszentrum Jülich (Lead), the RWTH Aachen University and the Wuppertal Institute are developing and evaluating low-emission and sustainable solutions for the regional energy-intensive industries. The aim is to enable a successful transition of the Rhenish lignite mining area to a "Zukunftsrevier" (future region) for sustainable business. The PtX approach enables climate-neutral industrial processes using renewably generated electricity and renewable resources based on CO2 as a sustainable raw material. PtX thus represents the key technology for sector coupling and opens up the possibility of a carbon cycle economy. The aim of the project is to raise the novel PtX processes from laboratory application expressed as a technology readiness level (TRL) = 3 (experimental proof of concept) to the level of an operating prototype (TRL = 7) within ten years.
The three-years project, financially supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), involves researchers of the Wuppertal Institute's Research Units Sectors and Technologies as well as Material Cycles. Through their ex-ante impact assessments, they contribute to ensuring that the energy and industrial transformation can be designed in an environmentally sound and resource-friendly way in the long run.
In sub-report 1, the researchers use qualitative analyses to describe how future changes in background processes (e.g. renewable electricity or green raw materials such as steel or cement) can be integrated into life cycle assessments and which calculation tools already exist for this purpose. In addition, qualitative analyses are carried out on the basis of literature examples in order to discuss the influence of future background systems on the overall life cycle assessment and to demonstrate the benefits of prospective life cycle assessments for iNEW2.0 technologies at an advanced stage of development.
As the degree of maturity of the processes developed in iNEW2.0 is still too low to make statements about their possible large-scale commercial use, the researchers have developed a benchmarking analysis in sub-report 2. Using the example of the Power-to-Ammonia and Power-to-Methanol processes, they show how comparative indicators can be determined on the basis of already available green reference technologies, which can give technical developers an indication of the values that the technologies to be developed should achieve in the long term. The green Haber-Bosch process for ammonia production and the green CO2-based methanol synthesis via CO2 and H2 for methanol production were selected as “low-carbon” reference technologies. The central indicators of the benchmark analysis are "plausible material flows", "plausible energy consumption", "plausible production costs", "plausible greenhouse gas emissions" and "plausible critical raw materials". These were determined for the respective potential market entry year of the processes developed in iNEW2.0.
Finally, in sub-report 3, a criticality analysis was carried out for individual raw materials that are potentially required for the iNEW2.0 technologies. Bismuth, cobalt, iridium, manganese, nickel, rare earths, silicon, yttrium, tin and zirconium were considered. The VDI Richtlinie VDI 4800 Sheet 2 (Chapter 6) was selected as the basis for the assessment and the methodology for analysing the supply risk, based on geological, technical, geopolitical and economic criteria, was applied. The results are documented for each raw material in multi-page fact sheets.
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