Argonne National Laboratory

The E-fuel Cost Estimation Model (v1.0) is an Excel-based techno-economic analysis tool developed by Argonne National Laboratory to provide a rapid, high-level estimate of e-fuel production costs. The model uses a standard discounted cash-flow rate-of-return methodology to calculate hydrogen production cost and the levelized cost of e-fuel production under varying electricity supply, carbon-dioxide-source, storage, plant-scale, and operating assumptions. It is based on a Fischer–Tropsch e-fuel process that produces a synthetic liquid-fuel mixture subsequently upgraded into naphtha, jet fuel, and diesel.

• Provide a streamlined platform for estimating the production cost of e-fuels under alternative energy, feedstock, and operating scenarios.
• Quantify the effect of electrolyzer capacity, varying capacity factor, electricity price, carbon dioxide source, and operating mode on e-fuel cost.
• Estimate hydrogen production and storage requirements for continuous, dynamic, and intermittent e-fuel plant operation.
• Identify the relative contributions of capital expenditures (CapEx), operating expenditures (OpEx), hydrogen, carbon dioxide, electricity, labor, and storage to the minimum fuel selling price.
• Enable users to assess custom e-fuel process assumptions and economic parameters.

• Hydrogen is produced using PEM electrolysis powered by various electricity sources, steady or intermittent, in the range of 5–135 MW nameplate capacity.
• The reference e-fuel process is based on Argonne process modeling and techno-economic studies of Fischer–Tropsch e-fuel production.
• Hydrogen storage may use buried-pipe physical storage or salt-cavern geologic storage, with cost data based on HDSAM and published hydrogen-storage analysis.
• Carbon dioxide capture costs vary by source, including ethanol, ammonia, natural-gas processing, hydrogen production, cement, iron and steel, and coal- or natural-gas-fired power plants.

The E-fuel Cost Estimation Model is implemented in Microsoft Excel and includes an interactive “e-fuel model” worksheet for user inputs and results, along with a “tables” worksheet for detailed cost summaries. User-editable input cells are color coded, and the model is run using an in-workbook calculation routine.

The software is copyright © 2026 by the UChicago Argonne, LLC.

For any questions, please contact Pingping Sun, email: [email protected].

E-fuel Cost Estimation Model (v1.0) must be run in desktop version of Microsoft Excel 2010® for full functionality. Prior to downloading the model, users must register.