Evaluating CO2 mitigation strategies in SAF biorefineries: Techno-economic and life cycle analysis
The aviation sector requires scalable decarbonization strategies, and lignocellulosic sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) represents a promising pathway. This study comparatively evaluates the techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment (LCA) of three CO2 management strategies integrated within a U.S.-based gasification–Fischer–Tropsch SAF biorefinery: (i) catalytic hydrogenation of captured CO2 to methanol, (ii) geological CO2 sequestration, and (iii) mineralization to sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3). Techno-economic analysis indicates that methanol synthesis requires approximately 26% higher capital investment and 33% higher operating costs than mineralization. Although methanol co-production generates the highest gross revenue, NaHCO3 production reduces the SAF minimum selling price by approximately 38% relative tomore »