(Frederica / Denmark) – The Danish energy company Ørsted wants to generate sustainable CO100 for the production of e-fuels in its straw-fired 2-megawatt block at the Avedøre power plant in Copenhagen. This is the next phase of Green Fuels for Denmark's (GFDK) Power-to-X facility - and it could be Ørsted's first for carbon capture, the company said. A final investment decision depends on the realization of the Green Fuels for Denmark parts that will produce e-methanol and e-kerosene.
Ørsted is the owner and operator of the power plant. It consists of two wood pellet-fired units and one straw-fired unit, which feed electricity into the Danish grid and provide district heating to the greater Copenhagen area. 
Ørsted and Copenhagen utility HOFOR recently reached an agreement under which Ørsted will manage electricity production from HOFOR's planned 250 megawatt offshore wind farm Aflandshage will decrease. The transfer point is Avedøre. The plan is to build electrolyzer capacities there in three steps from 10 megawatts to 250 megawatts to 1,3 gigawatts for the production of green hydrogen for GFDK. The project was included in the EU funding program “Important Projects of Common European Interest” (IPCEI), which was initiated to advance the hydrogen economy in the EU.
In the first phase, hydrogen will be produced for heavy-duty road transport. The second step is to combine the production of renewable hydrogen with carbon capture to produce sustainable methanol and e-kerosene for shipping and aviation.
CO2 from sustainable sources
The straw-fired block is supplied with locally sourced agricultural by-products and generates heat and electricity from around 130.000 tonnes of straw each year. The combination of using straw as fuel and utilizing the excess heat from the carbon capture process and the Power-to-X process would result in a district heating capacity of up to 260 megawatts, providing “both environmentally friendly and price-competitive district heating for the greater Copenhagen area,” says Ørsted.
For the synthetic fuels for internal combustion engines, hydrogen is “methanized” with carbon dioxide and further processed in a refinery to produce e-fuel, such as kerosene. Their use in cars is not without controversy. In Germany, for example, “with the current electricity mix, the production of e-fuels is too inefficient, too expensive, and their availability too uncertain to be used in cars or to heat buildings,” says one Study of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). “Such hydrogen-based fuels should be used primarily in sectors such as aviation or in industrial processes that cannot be electrified.”
deep link
https://orsted.com/en/media/newsroom/news/2021/06/857452362384936
Photo above
Avedøre power plant near Copenhagen / © Ørsted
Graphic center
Scheme of the planned production of e-fuels / © Ørsted
