Techno-Economic Optimization of CO2-to-Methanol with Solid-Oxide Electrolyzer

Abstract

Carbon capture and utilization are promising to tackle fossil-fuel depletion and climate change. CO2 hydrogenation can synthesize various chemicals and fuels, such as methanol, formic acid, urea, and methane. CO2-to-methanol integrated with solid-oxide electrolysis (SOE) process can store renewable power in methanol while recycling recovered CO2, thus achieving the dual purposes of storing excess renewable power and reducing lifetime CO2 emissions. This paper focuses on the techno-economic optimization of CO2 hydrogenation to synthesize green methanol integrated with solid-oxide electrolysis process. Process integration, techno-economic evaluation, and multi-objective optimization are carried out for a case study. Results show that there is a trade-off between energy efficiency and methanol production cost. The annual yield of methanol of the studied case is 100 kton with a purity of 99.7%wt with annual CO2 utilization of 150 kton, representing the annual storage capacity of 800 GWh renewable energy. Although the system efficiency is rather high at around at 70% and varies within a narrow range, methanol production cost reaches 560 $/ton for an electricity price of 73.16 $/MWh, being economically infeasible with a payback time over 13 years. When the electricity price is reduced to 47 $/MWh and further to 24 $/MWh, the methanol production cost becomes 365 and 172 $/ton with an attractive payback time of 4.6 and 2.8 years, respectively. The electricity price has significant impact on project implementation. The electricity price is different in each country, leading to a difference of the payback time in different locations.

Advances in the Design of Heterogeneous Catalysts and Thermocatalytic Processes for CO2 Utilization

“…Finally, when looking at ASPEN process simulations, a similar trend is again observed − with most of the works being done in the methanol pathway field, − probably owing to the easier downstream separation of this process . Here, a typical process comprises an initial feed with pressurization steps followed by a fixed bed reactor.…”

“…280 The simulation results showed that in the adiabatic and the gas-cooled reactor the hot spot temperatures inside the system can be within the typical operating temperature range for the catalyst and only the water-cooled system showed advantages in terms of efficient heat removal. Finally, when looking at ASPEN process simulations, a similar trend is again observed [281][282][283][284][285][286][287] with most of the works being done in the methanol pathway field, 281-285 probably owing to the easier downstream separation of this process. 286 Here, a typical process comprises an initial feed with pressurization steps followed by a fixed bed reactor.…”

Birleştirilmiş kömür gazlaştırma ve metanlaştırma sisteminin parçacık sürü optimizasyon yöntemiyle performans değerlendirmesi

“…Furthermore, the carbon dioxide for the methanol synthesis was provided by the oxyfuel combustion biomass gasification system. Zhang et al [7] studied the techno-economic optimization of green methanol production from the carbon dioxide hydrogenation system with an integrated solid-oxide electrolysis process. They simulated the system using Aspen Plus and used multi-objective optimization for the techno-economic optimization.…”

Economic Parity Analysis of Green Methanol Synthesis Using Water Electrolysis Based on Renewable Energy

“…To commercialize green MeOH production, the realization of MeOH parity (which is when green MeOH production cost is compared favorably with that of gray MeOH production) should be conducted. Hence, several studies dealing with techno-economic analysis (TEA) for green MeOH production have been reported to calculate the unit MeOH production cost at a certain point in time, as shown in Figure . − …”