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Methanol production process configurations based on renewable energy sources have been designed. The processes were analyzed in the thermodynamic process simulation tool DNA. The syngas used for the catalytic methanol production was produced by gasification of biomass, electrolysis of water, CO2 from post-combustion capture and autothermal reforming of natural gas or biogas. Underground gas storage of hydrogen and oxygen was used in connection with the electrolysis to enable the electrolyser to follow the variations in the power produced by renewables.Six plant configurations, each with a different syngas production method, were compared. The plants achieve methanol exergy efficiencies of 59-72%, the best from a configuration incorporating autothermal reforming of biogas and electrolysis of water for syngas production. The different processes in the plants are highly heat integrated, and the low-temperature waste heat is used for district heat production. This results in high total energy efficiencies (~90%) for the plants. The * Corresponding author. Fax: +45 45884325, email: lrc@mek.dtu.dk 1 specific methanol costs for the six plants are in the range 11.8-25.3 €/GJexergy. The lowest cost is obtained by a plant using electrolysis of water, gasification of biomass and autothermal reforming of natural gas for syngas production.
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Citation (APA):Clausen, L. R. (2015). Maximizing biofuel production in a thermochemical biorefinery by adding electrolytic hydrogen and by integrating torrefaction with entrained flow gasification. Energy, 85, 94-101. DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2015 Maximizing biofuel production in a thermochemical biorefinery by adding electrolytic hydrogen and by integrating torrefaction with entrained flow gasification
AbstractIn a "conventional" thermochemical biorefinery, carbon is emitted from the plant in the form of CO2 to make the synthesis gas from the gasifier suitable for fuel production. The alternative to this carbon removal is to add hydrogen to the plant. By adding hydrogen, it is possible to more than double the biofuel production per biomass input by converting almost all of the carbon in the biomass feed to carbon stored in the biofuel product. Water or steam electrolysis can supply the hydrogen to the biorefinery and also the oxygen for the gasifier. This paper presents the design and thermodynamic analysis of two biorefineries integrating water electrolysis for the production of methanol. In both plants, torrefied woody biomass is supplied to an entrained flow gasifier, but in one of the plants, the torrefaction process occurs on-site, as it is integrated with the entrained flow gasification process. The analysis shows that the biorefinery with integrated torrefaction has a higher biomass to methanol energy ratio (136% vs. 101%) as well as higher total energy efficiency (62% vs. 56%). By comparing with two identical biorefineries without electrolysis, it is concluded that the biorefinery with integrated torrefaction benefits most from the integration of electrolysis.
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