CO 2 Utilization Technologies: A Techno-Economic Analysis for Synthetic Natural Gas Production

Szabolcs Szima and Calin-Cristian Cormos
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Szabolcs Szima: Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Babes-Bolyai University, 11 Arany Janos, 400028 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Calin-Cristian Cormos: Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Babes-Bolyai University, 11 Arany Janos, 400028 Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 5, 1-18

Abstract: Production of synthetic natural gas (SNG) offers an alternative way to valorize captured CO 2 from energy intensive industrial processes or from a dedicated CO 2 grid. This paper presents an energy-efficient way for synthetic natural gas production using captured CO 2 and renewable hydrogen. Considering several renewable hydrogen production sources, a techno-economic analysis was performed to find a promising path toward its practical application. In the paper, the five possible renewable hydrogen sources (photo fermentation, dark fermentation, biomass gasification, bio photolysis, and PV electrolysis) were compared to the two reference cases (steam methane reforming and water electrolysis) from an economic stand point using key performance indicators. Possible hydrogen production capacities were also considered for the evaluation. From a technical point of view, the SNG process is an efficient process from both energy efficiency (about 57%) and CO 2 conversion rate (99%). From the evaluated options, the photo-fermentation proved to be the most attractive with a levelized cost of synthetic natural gas of 18.62 €/GJ. Considering the production capacities, this option loses its advantageousness and biomass gasification becomes more attractive with a little higher levelized cost at 20.96 €/GJ. Both results present the option when no CO 2 credit is considered. As presented, the CO 2 credits significantly improve the key performance indicators, however, the SNG levelized cost is still higher than natural gas prices.

Keywords: CO 2 utilization; synthetic natural gas; techno-economic analysis; renewable hydrogen (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 (6)

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