Methanol Production via CO2 Hydrogenation: Sensitivity Analysis and Simulation—Based Optimization

Abstract

Carbon dioxide (CO 2) is one of greenhouse gases, which can cause global warming. One of studies to mitigate CO 2 emissions to the atmosphere is to convert CO 2 to valuable products (i.e., methanol). To make methanol production via CO 2 hydrogenation a competitive process, the optimal operating conditions with minimum production cost need to be considered. This paper studied an application of response surface methodology (RSM) in optimization of methanol production via CO 2 hydrogenation. The objective of this optimization was to minimize the methanol production cost per tons produced methanol. The sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the parameters that show significant impacts on the methanol production cost. Response surface methodology coupled with non-linear programming solver were used as the optimization tool. The results showed RSM was successfully applied to the methanol production via CO 2 hydrogenation process. The obtained minimum methanol production cost was $565.54 per ton produced methanol with the optimal operating conditions as follows. Inlet pressure to the first reactor: 57.8 bar, Inlet temperature to the first reactor: 183.6 • C, Inlet pressure to the second reactor: 102.6 bar, Outlet temperature of the liquid stream cooler after the second reactor: 63.5 • C, Inlet temperature to the first distillation column: 51.8 • C.

Recent developments in state-of-the-art silica-modified catalysts for the fixation of CO2 in epoxides to form organic carbonates

“…30–32 Over the years, CO 2 has also been utilized in various sectors including separation processes, 33 dry-cleaning, 34 refrigerators, 35 fire extinguishers, 36 food, 37 agrochemical industry 38 and as a solvent for several reactions under supercritical conditions. 39–41 Furthermore, CO 2 has been proven to be a sustainable C1 feedstock in the chemical synthesis of several chemicals including methanol, 42–44 urea, 45 lactones, 46 various heterocycles, 47,48 biodegradable polymers, 49 and carboxylated structures, to name a few. 38,50,51 Moreover, in an effort to successfully overcome its kinetic inertness, the chemical conversion of CO 2 into commercial products has been carried out through several catalytic routes such as homogeneous, 52 heterogeneous, 53 electrochemical, 54 solar-thermal 55 and photochemical catalysis.…”

The Future Impact of Carbon Tax on Electricity Flow between Great Britain and Its Neighbors until 2030

“…The over-demand wind generation can be stored for a long time in different forms [27][28][29][30]. Energy storage in large volumes can be achieved by the conversion of renewable energy to hydrogen and then CO 2 hydrogenation to synthesize gas and/or chemicals [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39].…”

Power-to-Green Methanol via CO2 Hydrogenation—A Concept Study including Oxyfuel Fluidized Bed Combustion of Biomass

“…Detailed information regarding the design and modeling of methanol synthesis units valorizing CO 2 can be found in [3,8,9,17,40,41].…”