Power-to-Green Methanol via CO 2 Hydrogenation—A Concept Study including Oxyfuel Fluidized Bed Combustion of Biomass

Simon Pratschner, Pavel Skopec, Jan Hrdlicka and Franz Winter
Additional contact information
Simon Pratschner: Institute of Chemical, Environmental and Bioscience Engineering, TU Wien, Getreidemarkt 9/166, 1060 Vienna, Austria
Pavel Skopec: Department of Energy Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Technicka 4, 166 07 Prague, Czech Republic
Jan Hrdlicka: Department of Energy Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Technicka 4, 166 07 Prague, Czech Republic
Franz Winter: Institute of Chemical, Environmental and Bioscience Engineering, TU Wien, Getreidemarkt 9/166, 1060 Vienna, Austria

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 15, 1-33

Abstract: A revolution of the global energy industry is without an alternative to solving the climate crisis. However, renewable energy sources typically show significant seasonal and daily fluctuations. This paper provides a system concept model of a decentralized power-to-green methanol plant consisting of a biomass heating plant with a thermal input of 20 MW th. (oxyfuel or air mode), a CO 2 processing unit (DeOxo reactor or MEA absorption), an alkaline electrolyzer, a methanol synthesis unit, an air separation unit and a wind park. Applying oxyfuel combustion has the potential to directly utilize O 2 generated by the electrolyzer, which was analyzed by varying critical model parameters. A major objective was to determine whether applying oxyfuel combustion has a positive impact on the plant’s power-to-liquid (PtL) efficiency rate. For cases utilizing more than 70% of CO 2 generated by the combustion, the oxyfuel’s O 2 demand is fully covered by the electrolyzer, making oxyfuel a viable option for large scale applications. Conventional air combustion is recommended for small wind parks and scenarios using surplus electricity. Maximum PtL efficiencies of ? PtL,Oxy = 51.91% and ? PtL,Air = 54.21% can be realized. Additionally, a case study for one year of operation has been conducted yielding an annual output of about 17,000 t/a methanol and 100 GWh th. /a thermal energy for an input of 50,500 t/a woodchips and a wind park size of 36 MWp.

Keywords: green methanol; power-to-X; CCU; oxyfuel; renewables; alkaline electrolysis; biomass (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/15/4638/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/15/4638/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:15:p:4638-:d:605699

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().