A Minimal Methanol Backstop for High Electrification Scenarios
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arXiv
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
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| Formato: | Preprint |
| Publicado: |
2025
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| _version_ | 1866909044619345920 |
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| author | Glaum, Philipp Neumann, Fabian Millinger, Markus Brown, Tom |
| author_facet | Glaum, Philipp Neumann, Fabian Millinger, Markus Brown, Tom |
| contents | Electrification of sectors such as land transport and building heating is a cost-effective pathway to deep decarbonization. However, some sectors still require energy-dense fuels -- including aviation, shipping and backup power -- or chemical feedstocks. While a 'hydrogen economy' is often proposed to fill these hard-to-electrify gaps, it faces challenges in transport, storage, and infrastructure coordination. We introduce a 'minimal methanol backstop' to supply residual demand in highly-electrified systems. As a liquid fuel, methanol is easy to store and transport, and avoids infrastructure lock-in. Produced from hydrogen and carbon monoxide, it can help integrate biogenic carbon from decentralized biomass wastes and residues. Using a European energy system model constrained to be carbon-neutral, we show that methanol-based systems increase total system costs by 2.4% relative to hydrogen-based systems, an increase that remains below 6% across sensitivities. We argue that this modest cost premium is justified by reduced infrastructure complexity. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_09277 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | A Minimal Methanol Backstop for High Electrification Scenarios Glaum, Philipp Neumann, Fabian Millinger, Markus Brown, Tom Physics and Society Electrification of sectors such as land transport and building heating is a cost-effective pathway to deep decarbonization. However, some sectors still require energy-dense fuels -- including aviation, shipping and backup power -- or chemical feedstocks. While a 'hydrogen economy' is often proposed to fill these hard-to-electrify gaps, it faces challenges in transport, storage, and infrastructure coordination. We introduce a 'minimal methanol backstop' to supply residual demand in highly-electrified systems. As a liquid fuel, methanol is easy to store and transport, and avoids infrastructure lock-in. Produced from hydrogen and carbon monoxide, it can help integrate biogenic carbon from decentralized biomass wastes and residues. Using a European energy system model constrained to be carbon-neutral, we show that methanol-based systems increase total system costs by 2.4% relative to hydrogen-based systems, an increase that remains below 6% across sensitivities. We argue that this modest cost premium is justified by reduced infrastructure complexity. |
| title | A Minimal Methanol Backstop for High Electrification Scenarios |
| topic | Physics and Society |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.09277 |