Techno-economic analysis of CO2 hydrogenation to high-value products
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Date
2023-07-19
Authors
Οικονόμου, Χρήστος
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Abstract
Carbon dioxide emissions have skyrocketed over the last few years, making global climate change one of the major concerns of today’s world. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is presently one of the most promising technologies to abate anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. Nowadays, captured CO2 is usually converted to gasoline alternative liquid fuels, most common of which is methanol.
In this study, a low-temperature Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) Electrolyzer as a source of green hydrogen is integrated with the CO2 hydrogenation process to produce methanol. At first, the capture technology of CO2 has been reviewed, while the operational characteristics of the PEM Electrolyzer have been analyzed. Subsequently, the process design for methanol production has been assessed.
Additionally, a techno-economic analysis for the whole production plant has been conducted, through which we estimated that the economic feasibility of this process is not promising enough and steps towards reducing the total production cost of methanol have to be implemented.
Finally, there is a serious problem regarding the scarcity of critical materials used in the electrolyzers, platinum, and iridium specifically, hence it is urgent to find a solution to reduce the dependence on these critical materials.
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Keywords
Carbon capture and storage, Membrane gas separation, Water electrolysis, Proton exchange membrane electrolyzer, Modeling, Carbon dioxide hydrogenation, Methanol, Technoeconomic analysis, Iridium, Platinum