CO₂ from waste incineration most promising option for synthetic fuel production – report
Clean Energy Wire
CO₂ from municipal waste incineration and pulp mills offers the most promising near-term potential for synthetic fuel production due to high availability and low environmental trade-offs, a report from Germany’s environment agency UBA has found.
“The use of biogenic CO₂ from thermal waste treatment plants and pulp mills appears to be the option with the fewest drawbacks in the short and medium term, with significant untapped potential,” the report says.
European policymakers are pushing for greater deployment of synthetic fuels in aviation, shipping and industry to meet climate targets. Synthetic fuels, also referred to as Power-to-X products, require both green hydrogen made with renewable electricity and a carbon source. Sustainable and scalable CO₂ feedstocks are a key bottleneck for the sector.
The report, carried out by environmental research institute ifeu, warns against expanding ethanol production and biomass power for CO₂ supply, as these processes often depend on monocultures that can cause deforestation, biodiversity loss and soil degradation. Using existing waste and residue streams avoids these drawbacks while still delivering suitable quantities for industrial fuel synthesis, the authors say.
Capturing CO₂ directly from the atmosphere remains costly and technically immature, making waste-derived CO₂ a more practical short-term option, the report notes. However, it warns that using biogenic CO₂ for fuel synthesis could compete with bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) projects aimed at achieving negative emissions, which are essential in climate-neutrality scenarios.
The report adds that a global expansion of thermal waste treatment could reduce the environmental impacts of the waste sector. “In particular, it would be advantageous if organic waste no longer released methane in simple landfills,” it says.
