Life-Cycle Fossil Energy and GHG Emission Intensities of Coal-Based Vehicle Fuels in China

Coal is dominating the context of energy supply and demand, and is also considered as one important option to be converted to liquid and gaseous fuels for vehicle use in future in China. Tsinghua-CA3EM model is employed to calculate the life-cycle fossil energy and GHG emission intensity of the four major pathways of coal-based vehicle fuel in China. The results show that: 1) both the two aspects of intensities of the studied coal-based methanol, coal-based dim ethyl ether, direct coal-to-liquid and indirect coal-to-liquid are all about one time higher than conventional gasoline and diesel for vehicle pathways; 2) with the technology development in future, the above situation can be improved; 3) the development of coal-based fuels will substitute the petroleum in China effectively; and 4) Carbon Dioxide capture and storage technology is an effective option to study for low-carbon coal utilization.