The conversion of natural and unconventional gas into syngas is a crucial intermediate step in the production of various important chemicals and liquid fuels. The syngas generation step usually requires the largest capital investment of the process and may also be very energy intensive. Therefore, determining the most efficient method of converting feedstock into syngas of the correct H2:CO ratio is of significant importance. The aim of this work was to set design and performance targets for different H2:CO ratios (depending on the downstream requirements) in terms of the carbon efficiency (including CO2 utilization or emissions), water usage, and energy requirements. It was shown that the overall process for natural gas tri-reforming is limited by the enthalpy change (ΔH = 0) and this process was able to produce work. It was further shown that high syngas ratios not only require significant amounts of natural gas and oxygen but also emit CO2.

Glycerol is considered as the main by-product during the production of biodiesel. Using glycerol as a biorefinery feedstock cannot only promote a circular biodiesel production but also alleviate waste management challenges. An insight-based approach (CHO ternary diagrams) was used in this study for the synthesis of methanol from glycerol via reforming processes. It was shown that to produce syngas that fulfils the requirement for methanol synthesis, glycerol should be co-fed with methane in a molar ratio of 1:2 using steam as a reforming agent. A high-level economic as well as environmental analysis was conducted. It was found that the price of glycerol has a significant impact on the economic potential of the process. The glycerol price at which the economic potential was zero was found to be approximately $ 0.93/kg. It was shown that the process has a maximum carbon efficiency and atom economy with no waste generation (100% carbon efficiency and atom economy and 0 E-factor). Based on these CHO ternary diagram targets, a process simulation for methanol synthesis was developed using Aspen Plus. It was further revealed that Aspen Plus does not exceed targets set by CHO ternary diagrams (in terms of methanol production rate, carbon efficiency and atom economy). Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41660-022-00275-x.