10/04/2021

E-kerosene from Emsland: ifeu develops sustainability criteria

© acinquantadue - Fotolia

On 4 October 2021, Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze opened the world's first e-kerosene plant in Werlte in Emsland. The plant, based on the PtL principle (power-to-liquid), is operated by the company Solarbelt gGmbH, a sister company of atmosfair gGmbH. In this way, the renowned CO2 compensation provider itself becomes a producer of green aviation fuel. Since synthetic fuels are not green or even sustainable per se, atmosfair commissioned ifeu to develop sustainability criteria for both the electricity required for production and the CO2 needed as a raw material. For the electricity - which must be renewable - in particular, stringent additionality requirements were formulated. These would be met, for example, by new wind turbines without EEG compensation. Sources of CO2 for the synthesis of the PtL fuel are very numerous and diverse. The sustainability assessment is therefore based on several criteria, such as the question of fossil or biogenic origin, the residual character or serious environmental burdens associated with the respective CO2 production. Another important criterion is the risk of so-called lock-in effects. The bottom line is that the criteria grid developed by ifeu sets very high standards for sustainability. In the currently published version, the approach is limited to the production conditions in Germany for the time being. atmosfair aims to extend the framework to the international level, as it is foreseeable that the PtL market in Germany will be strongly oriented towards imports in the future. Aspects of global justice will then also be included in the criteria.

Project Kriterien für die Herstellung von nachhaltigem PtL für den Flugverkehr

Study Kriterien für die Herstellung von nachhaltigem PtL für den Flugverkehr