Thermodynamic and economic analysis of a novel biomass-derived methanol production assisted by electrolytic H2 adjustment and O2 recirculation

Ziqi Huang, Zhicong Wu, Gang Xu, Tianci Zhang and Wei Dong

Energy, 2025, vol. 336, issue C

Abstract: To address global imperatives for energy transition and renewable energy utilization, a novel biomass gasification-green hydrogen-to-methanol system (BG-H2-MeOH) is proposed. The core contributions comprise: (1) By systematically replacing energy-intensive units such as ASU and WGSR with green hydrogen and its derived components, we achieve efficient elemental-level conversion of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. This approach significantly enhances system carbon conversion efficiency, energy efficiency, and renewables integration capacity; (2) A graded energy cascade integration mechanism minimizing process exergy destruction through grade-matched recovery of waste heat/chemical potential and optimized exergy transfer, amplifying synergistic effects across energy flows. Under constant total energy input, biomass contribution decreases from 100.00 % to 51.25 % while carbon conversion reaches 94.60 %. Efficient waste heat/purge gas utilization and elimination of high-energy devices elevate net power generation to 11.65 MW, reducing exergy destruction by 47.05 MW. Consequently, system energy and exergy efficiencies rise by 10.36 % and 13.52 %, respectively. Economic benefits include a 58.1 M$ increase in net present value and 3.1-year decrease in discounted payback period, enabling carbon-neutral power-liquid fuel co-production. Sensitivity analysis confirms optimal performance at 1300 °C gasification temperature, 250 °C/50 bar methanol synthesis conditions, and 2.05 (H2-CO2)/(CO + CO2) syngas mole ratio. Furthermore, the system performs optimally economically when hydrogen prices are low and methanol prices are high.

Keywords: Biomass gasification; Methanol synthesis; Renewables integration; Thermodynamic analysis; Economic analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225041179
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:energy:v:336:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225041179

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.138475

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().