Technoeconomic analysis of a methanol plant based on gasification of biomass and electrolysis of water

Abstract

Methanol production process configurations based on renewable energy sources have been designed. The processes were analyzed in the thermodynamic process simulation tool DNA. The syngas used for the catalytic methanol production was produced by gasification of biomass, electrolysis of water, CO2 from post-combustion capture and autothermal reforming of natural gas or biogas. Underground gas storage of hydrogen and oxygen was used in connection with the electrolysis to enable the electrolyser to follow the variations in the power produced by renewables.Six plant configurations, each with a different syngas production method, were compared. The plants achieve methanol exergy efficiencies of 59-72%, the best from a configuration incorporating autothermal reforming of biogas and electrolysis of water for syngas production. The different processes in the plants are highly heat integrated, and the low-temperature waste heat is used for district heat production. This results in high total energy efficiencies (~90%) for the plants. The * Corresponding author. Fax: +45 45884325, email: lrc@mek.dtu.dk 1 specific methanol costs for the six plants are in the range 11.8-25.3 €/GJexergy. The lowest cost is obtained by a plant using electrolysis of water, gasification of biomass and autothermal reforming of natural gas for syngas production.

Technoeconomics and Sustainability of Renewable Methanol and Ammonia Productions Using Wind Power-based Hydrogen

“…[70]. ** This emissions account for methanol production process and the emissions occurring with the utilization of methanol.…”

“…Therefore, methanol production from renewable hydrogen would increase the energy consumption; however, a significant GHG reduction may be possible [22]. Clausen et al [70] used electrolytic H 2 in methanol production using the post combustion captured CO 2 . The alkaline electrolyzer is operated at 90°C and atmospheric pressure with an electricity consumption of 4.3 kWh/Nm 3 H 2 corresponding to an efficiency of 70% (LHV).…”

“…The level of emission is around 0.2 kg CO 2 /kg methanol, which is mainly from biomass growing, harvesting, and transportation. Methanol from biomass or flue gas CO 2 is at least 2-3 times more expensive than the fossil-fuel based methanol [13,[64][65][66][67][68][69][70].…”

Power and methanol production from biomass combined with solar and wind energy: analysis and comparison

“…Another study demonstrated several method to produce methanol from CO 2 (Clausen et al 2010). Figure 7 shows the developed model proposed with the result showed that biogas reforming combined with water electrolysis gave the best methanol exergy efficiency up to 72% with specific methanol cost in range of 11.8-25.3 €/GJ exergy .…”

“…Carbon capture technology has been deployed and the utilization of CO 2 has been studied (Editorial 2015). CO 2 can be utilized for producing methane (Collet, et al 2017), methanol (Clausen, et al 2010), and other substances.…”