Sustainability Assessment of Thermocatalytic Conversion of CO₂ to Transportation Fuels, Methanol, and 1-Propanol

Abstract

Using captured CO2 as a chemical feedstock is widely considered toward establishing low carbon technologies to mitigate climate change. Process systems engineering analyses can help increase the chances of success by identifying attractive targets at early stages. Here, a comparative techno-economic and environmental analysis of three thermocatalytic CO2-based plants individually producing liquid hydrocarbon transportation fuels (LHTF), methanol, and 1-propanol is introduced. While the 1-propanol plant generates a remarkable profit, the LHTF and methanol plants are not economically viable, mainly due to the CO2 and H2 input cost. Sensitivity analysis shows that the feedstock prices need to drop by 80% for these two plants to break even. A tax structure is not a sensible option since it would be more than 4 times the highest carbon tax currently implemented in the country. In terms of the environmental performance, the CO2 utilization efficiencies are 45.5, 60.1, and −33.8% for LHTF, methanol, and 1-propanol syntheses, respectively. The negative utilization efficiency in the 1-propanol plant highlights the need of a greener production of its raw material ethylene. When the entire life cycles of the products are considered, these emerging plants emit 85.9, 77.4, and 35.9% less CO2 than their conventional counterparts for the same output. Our study provides the first evaluation of CO2-based 1-propanol synthesis, highlighting its potential, underscores gaps in the CO2-based LHTF, methanol, and 1-propanol by comparing them on a uniform common basis, and sets future research directions.

Flame Spray Pyrolysis as a Synthesis Platform to Assess Metal Promotion in In2O3‐Catalyzed CO2 Hydrogenation

“…With a global annual demand of 80 million tonnes projected to further grow by 4% annually, methanol (CH 3 OH) is a key platform chemical and prospective energy carrier envisaged to play a crucial role in global efforts tackling climate change by lowering the carbon footprint. [1][2][3][4] To this end, captured carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and renewable hydrogen (H 2 ) attained from water electrolysis should be used as the feedstock to generate the so-called e-methanol. The thermocatalytic hydrogenation of CO 2 using hetero geneous nanostructured catalysts offers an efficient approach to realize this route.…”

“…The thermocatalytic hydrogenation of CO 2 using hetero geneous nanostructured catalysts offers an efficient approach to realize this route. [4][5][6] Among many catalytic materials studied, indium oxide (In 2 O 3 ) has emerged as an attractive active catalyst due to its high methanol selectivity and stability. [7] Owing to its anisotropic surface, oxygen vacancies are selectively generated under reaction conditions forming an In 3 O 5 ensemble, which is capable of activating and hydrogenating CO 2 to methanol very selectively, while the competitive reverse water-gas shift reaction (RWGS) forming carbon monoxide is energetically hindered.…”

Improving hydrogen production for carbon-nitride-based materials: crystallinity, cyanimide groups and alkali metals in solution working synergistically

“…methanol and higher alcohols is more promising. 1,2 Nevertheless, it is important to emphasize that nowadays 96% of commercial hydrogen is generated from fossil fuels. 3 Therefore, using nonfossil hydrogen sources is essential to make CO 2 reduction technology sustainable.…”

Prospects of Producing Higher Alcohols from Carbon Dioxide: A Process System Engineering Perspective

“…Among the four higher alcohols investigated in this study, only synthesis of C3OH from syngas and ethylene was discussed in a recent publication from this laboratory. 6 This is the first comprehensive process evaluation study on the synthesis of the higher alcohols only from syngas obtained by reacting captured and concentrated CO 2 with green H 2 . In the next section, we will discuss the concept of hydrogen wastage (HW) and show that HA synthesis from CO 2 is advantageous due to its relatively low HW in comparison to other products of the same carbon chain length.…”