Is Power-to-X the key to decarbonizing our world?
In a decarbonized world, electricity will not always be the final energy product. Instead, to reach sectors that cannot be electrified, electricity from renewable energy will need to be converted into other energy carriers. The technological solution for this conversion is Power-to-X, which allows a wide range of sectors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without the need for major infrastructure investments.
What is Power-to-X?
Power-to-X provides a sustainable solution for synthetic fuels and largescale, seasonal storage of renewable energy. It works by converting electricity from renewables into climate-neutral gas, liquid, heat – or even chemicals – that are relatively easy to store and transport, thus offering clear pathways to decarbonize a variety of sectors and secure supplies of clean energy.
For example, Power-to-X uses water electrolysis to produce hydrogen from renewable energy and to create synthetic gas and fuels that can replace fossil fuels. These pathways enable sector coupling, which will spread the benefits of renewables and make the energy sector the backbone of an increasingly greener fuel supply for industry, transport, and heating and cooling.
How does Power-to-X work?
Power-to-X uses water electrolysis to break water into oxygen and hydrogen by utilizing energy from renewable resources. The resulting oxygen is released into the atmosphere or captured for processing. The hydrogen is stored as a compressed gas that can be used directly as chemical feedstock or to generate power and heat. It can be further processed into climate-neutral synthetic fuels, such as synthetic natural gas (methanation), methanol (methanol synthesis) or ammonia (Haber-Bosch process). If gaseous fuels, such as synthetic natural gas, are produced, the process is also called Power-to-Gas. For liquid fuels like methanol, it is Power-to-Liquid.
Learn more about hydrogen as the basic element of Power-to-X
Why is Power-to-X important for the industry?
Increasing the share of renewable energy onto power grids will not solve the problem of climate change by itself. Instead, it will only reduce emissions for power generation, which currently accounts for around a third of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Industry, transportation, agriculture, and heating and cooling, account for a far bigger share. Moreover, these sectors are difficult to electrify and continue to rely heavily on fossil fuels. Maritime shipping, for example, with 940 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year, contributes nearly 3 percent of annual carbon dioxide emissions. To decarbonize, the industry will need to replace current fossil fuels sources with low-carbon hydrogen-based fuels. Power-to-X offers clear climate-friendly solutions that can immediately reduce emissions and limit global warming by 1.5˚C.
Renewables, of course, come with their own challenges as well, creating large fluctuations on power grids in times of too little or too much sun or wind. These fluctuations put a strain on baseload power plants and stretch grid infrastructure to its limits. Power-to-X takes advantage of surplus renewable energy by allowing it to be stored as a gas that can also be used to fuel power plants and stabilize grids.
Discover how Power-to-X fuels can decarbonize shipping
Governments need to take rapid actions to lower the barriers that are holding low-carbon hydrogen back from faster growth, which will be important if the world is to have a chance of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
What are the challenges?
While there are a number of pilot projects and investments underway, there are currently no largescale Power-to-X plants and the infrastructure for climate-neutral fuels is not yet in place to meet the world’s demand for energy. One of the major challenges is cost, which will require massive investment to bring down the price of green hydrogen and make it competitive with fossil fuels. It will also require new energy policies, such as global carbon pricing and an end to fossil fuel subsidies. The transformation needed is immense. Reports have estimated that at least 30 percent of electricity must be used to produce green hydrogen and its derivatives by 2050 and electrolyzer capacity will have to increase from a mere 0.3 gigawatts today to around 5,000 gigawatts.