RSB Launches New Sustainability Requirements for Power-to-X Technologies

Last week, on behalf of its membership platform, the RSB Power-to-X Working Group, RSB officially launched the newly approved sustainability guidance and requirements for Power-to-X (PtX) technologies.

The RSB PtX Working Group was first initiated in September 2021 to agree on best practice to identify and mitigate potential sustainability risks. 52 participants from 31 organisations came together to ensure a global multi-stakeholder approach, delivering learning sessions on PtX technologies and sustainability risks, providing and facilitating discussions on key sustainability topics, and developing a commonly accepted proposal on sustainability requirements for PtX technology.

This commonly accepted approach to developing sustainability requirements has been included within RSB’s standards ecosystem via an amendment to the RSB Standard for Advanced Fuels, which you can access here.

This approach developed:

• New terms and definitions to create a consistent understanding for all stakeholders, including for:
  • Direct air carbon dioxide capture
  • Electrofuels and RFNBOs
  • Geological sources of carbon
  • Geothermal energy
  • Industrial waste gas
  • Renewable hydrogen
  • Renewable electricity
  • Renewables power purchase agreement
  • Feedstock-specific requirements for biogenic and non-biogenic carbon sources
• Feedstock-specific requirements for CO2 captured from the atmosphere and geological sources
• Specific requirements related to the production and use of renewable electricity
• Specific requirements on feedstocks for renewable hydrogen production (water sources and renewable fuel reforming)
• Specific requirements on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

With these requirements now incorporated into the RSB Standard for Advanced Fuels, RSB will continue to refine and update guidance and review emerging legislation via work conducted within the RSB Power-to-X Working Group.

“Sustainability certification of bio-based fuels and chemicals has proven to be a crucial element over the years. Indeed, robust sustainability principles and criteria have helped the entire supply chain evaluate the real environmental, social and technical impact of these products. When it comes to e-fuels/PtX, the level of complexity is increasing and the new sustainability guidance and requirements for Power-to-X technologies proposed by RSB are very welcome. They are definitely paving the way for a sustainable way to produce power-to-fuels and power-to-chemicals.” – Haldor Topsoe’s Sylvain Verdier, Chair of the RSB PtX Working Group.

“Power-to-X is a game-changing technology that has the potential to decarbonise the atmosphere and defossilise industry by enabling the production of fuels and chemicals in a variety of locations with CO2 and H2 available sources! I am very proud to see the results of the Power-to-X Working group in the developing best practices to reduce sustainability risks of the PtX technology. We collaborated to support the sustainable scaling of the technology by sharing knowledge, resources, ideas, and capabilities, achieving results we could never have achieved alone.” – RSB’s Carolina Grassi, platform lead of the RSB PtX Working Group.