Techno-economic optimization of biomass-to-methanol with solid-oxide electrolyzer

Zhang, Hanfei; Maréchal, François; Pérez–Fortes, Mar; herle, Jan Van; Maréchal, François; Desideri, Umberto

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.114071

Cited by 86 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…The obtained results give insights in light of a growing development of a biorefinery concept, and confirm the production of methanol from biomass as a promising strategy to go towards a low-carbon society, although a more detailed study should be carried out [ 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 ]. For example, the methanol production costs strongly depend on plant capacity.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 56%

Techno-Economic Assessment of Bio-Syngas Production for Methanol Synthesis: A Focus on the Water–Gas Shift and Carbon Capture Sections

2020

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The biomass-to-methanol process may play an important role in introducing renewables in the industry chain for chemical and fuel production. Gasification is a thermochemical process to produce syngas from biomass, but additional steps are requested to obtain a syngas composition suitable for methanol synthesis. The aim of this work is to perform a computer-aided process simulation to produce methanol starting from a syngas produced by oxygen–steam biomass gasification, whose details are reported in the literature. Syngas from biomass gasification was compressed to 80 bar, which may be considered an optimal pressure for methanol synthesis. The simulation was mainly focused on the water–gas shift/carbon capture sections requested to obtain a syngas with a (H2 – CO2)/(CO + CO2) molar ratio of about 2, which is optimal for methanol synthesis. Both capital and operating costs were calculated as a function of the CO conversion in the water–gas shift (WGS) step and CO2 absorption level in the carbon capture (CC) unit (by Selexol® process). The obtained results show the optimal CO conversion is 40% with CO2 capture from the syngas equal to 95%. The effect of the WGS conversion level on methanol production cost was also assessed. For the optimal case, a methanol production cost equal to 0.540 €/kg was calculated.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 56%

Techno-Economic Assessment of Bio-Syngas Production for Methanol Synthesis: A Focus on the Water–Gas Shift and Carbon Capture Sections

2020

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“…Acid gas removal and TEG unit modelling have not been described as these components simulation procedure can be found in the literature 38,39 …”

Section: Modelling and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exergoeconomic and environmental optimisations of multigeneration biomass‐based solid oxide fuel cell systems with reduced CO ₂ emissions

2021

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Summary In this research, four multigeneration systems comprising of a syngas‐fuelled solid oxide fuel cell, double‐effect absorption chiller (first configuration), a thermoelectric generator unit (second system), solid oxide electrolyser cell (third configuration), and fuel synthesis unit (fourth configuration) are proposed for cooling, heating, electricity, and hydrogen/synthetic methane production. In Configurations 1 to 3, 25% of the discharged CO2 is reinjected into the gasifier, whereas an additional portion is reused in Configuration 4 for synthetic methane production. Energy, exergy, exergoeconomic, and environmental (4E) analyses are conducted comprehensively. Besides, optimisation based on the genetic algorithm is applied to optimise the system through four different modes, for example, maximum efficiency, minimum product, cost, and cost‐rate. The results show that the second system has the highest exergy efficiency and power output while having the minimum product cost. Configurations 3 and 4 are capable of fuel production, while Configuration 4 concludes the least levelised CO2 emissions; however, having the highest total product cost. The proposed systems have some advantages and drawbacks, so selecting a suitable system depends on the perspective of decision‐makers.

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“…The chemical synthesis processes in the PowSto mode are given in the supplementary data based on Refs. [3,28] for the methane and methanol synthesis, and Ref. [27,39] for the ammonia synthesis (Haber-Bosch process).…”

Section: Models and Decision Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The comparison of the SE and CE pathways highlighted that the CE extended the range of stack operation towards a low current density (e. g., 0.3 A/cm 2 ) with an enhanced system efficiency of over 80% (LHV) under elevated pressure. By employing a Rankine cycle for heat recovery, power-to-methanol and power-to-ammonia systems could reach efficiencies of over 65% [26] and 70% [27] (LHV), respectively, with the integration of biomass gasification [26][27][28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reversible solid-oxide cell stack based power-to-x-to-power systems: Comparison of thermodynamic performance

Wang¹,

Zhang²,

Pérez–Fortes³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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The increasing penetration of variable renewable energies poses new challenges for grid management. The economic feasibility of grid-balancing plants may be limited by low annual operating hours if they work either only for power generation or only for power storage. This issue might be addressed by a dual-function power plant with power-to-x capability, which can produce electricity or store excess renewable electricity into chemicals at different periods. Such a plant can be uniquely enabled by a solid-oxide cell stack, which can switch between fuel cell and electrolysis with the same stack. This paper investigates the optimal conceptual design of this type of plant, represented by power-to-x-to-power process chains with x being hydrogen, syngas, methane, methanol and ammonia, concerning the efficiency (on a lower heating value) and power densities. The results show that an increase in current density leads to an increased oxygen flow rate and a decreased reactant utilization at the stack level for its thermal management, and an increased power density and a decreased efficiency at the system level. The power-generation efficiency is ranked as methane (65.9%), methanol (60.2%), ammonia (58.2%), hydrogen (58.3%), syngas (53.3%) at 0.4 A/cm 2 , due to the benefit of heat-to-chemical-energy conversion by chemical reformulating and the deterioration of electrochemical performance by the dilution of hydrogen. The power-storage efficiency is ranked as syngas (80%), hydrogen (74%), methane (72%), methanol (68%), ammonia (66%) at 0.7 A/cm 2 , mainly due to the benefit of co-electrolysis and the chemical energy loss occurring in the chemical synthesis reactions. The lost chemical energy improves plant-wise heat integration and compensates for its adverse effect on power-storage efficiency. Combining these efficiency numbers of the two modes results in a rank of round-trip efficiency: methane (47.5%) > syngas (43.3%) ≈ hydrogen (42.6%) > methanol (40.7%) > ammonia (38.6%). The pool of plant designs obtained lays the basis for the optimal deployment of this balancing technology for specific applications.

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Techno-economic optimization of biomass-to-methanol with solid-oxide electrolyzer

Cited by 86 publications

References 63 publications

Techno-Economic Assessment of Bio-Syngas Production for Methanol Synthesis: A Focus on the Water–Gas Shift and Carbon Capture Sections

Techno-Economic Assessment of Bio-Syngas Production for Methanol Synthesis: A Focus on the Water–Gas Shift and Carbon Capture Sections

Exergoeconomic and environmental optimisations of multigeneration biomass‐based solid oxide fuel cell systems with reduced CO ₂ emissions

Reversible solid-oxide cell stack based power-to-x-to-power systems: Comparison of thermodynamic performance

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Techno-economic optimization of biomass-to-methanol with solid-oxide electrolyzer

Cited by 86 publications

References 63 publications

Techno-Economic Assessment of Bio-Syngas Production for Methanol Synthesis: A Focus on the Water–Gas Shift and Carbon Capture Sections

Techno-Economic Assessment of Bio-Syngas Production for Methanol Synthesis: A Focus on the Water–Gas Shift and Carbon Capture Sections

Exergoeconomic and environmental optimisations of multigeneration biomass‐based solid oxide fuel cell systems with reduced CO 2 emissions

Reversible solid-oxide cell stack based power-to-x-to-power systems: Comparison of thermodynamic performance

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Exergoeconomic and environmental optimisations of multigeneration biomass‐based solid oxide fuel cell systems with reduced CO ₂ emissions