Process modelling and feasibility study of sorption-enhanced methanol synthesis

• DOI: 10.1016/j.cep.2022.109052
• Publication Date: 2022-07-16T08:54:41Z
• Authors: Harri Nieminen; Pavel Maksimov; Arto Laari; Virpi Väisänen; Ari Vuokila; Mika Huuhtanen; Tuomas Koiranen
• Keywords: Power-to-X; Methanol synthesis; Techno-economic; CO2 hydrogenation; Process modelling; Sorption-enhanced; 7. Clean energy; 01 natural sciences; 0104 chemical sciences

Abstract A sorption-enhanced process for hydrogenation of CO₂ to methanol was designed and investigated by mathematical modelling and techno-economic analysis. The modelling methodology combined dynamic modelling of the cyclic reactor operation with pseudo-steady state modelling of the overall process. With continuous adsorption of water in the sorption-enhanced process, highly pure methanol (>99%) was produced without downstream distillation. The dynamic reactor cycle was designed and optimized to maximize the methanol production rate. The cycle and the process were modelled in two reactor configurations: adiabatic and isothermal. Under the default cost assumptions for the raw materials (CO₂ 50 €/t, hydrogen 3000 €/t) the adiabatic configuration was found more competitive in terms of the overall methanol production cost, at 1085 €/t compared to 1255 €/t for the isothermal case. The cost estimate for the adiabatic case was found comparable to a reference process representing conventional CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol (1089 €/t). In addition to the methanol process, the developed modeling method has potential in the design of other sorption-enhanced processes.