Switchable catalysis for methanol and synthetic natural gas synthesis from CO2: A techno-economic investigation

The oil and gas sector produces a considerable volume of greenhouse gas emissions, mainly generated from flaring and venting natural gas. Herein, a techno-economic analysis has been performed of a switchable catalytic process to convert the CH and CO in flared/vented natural gas into syngas or metha...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Merkouri, Loukia Pantzechroula, Mathew, Jayson, Jacob, Jerin, Ramírez-Reina, Tomás, Duyar, Melis S.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:digitalcsic_::d76337ffb1d71d18d4fd456bb46cb99d
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/365259
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Flared gas upgrading
Switchable catalysis
CO2 utilisation
Techno-economic analysis
Methanol synthesis
Synthetic natural gas
http://metadata.un.org/sdg/13
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
Descripción
Sumario:The oil and gas sector produces a considerable volume of greenhouse gas emissions, mainly generated from flaring and venting natural gas. Herein, a techno-economic analysis has been performed of a switchable catalytic process to convert the CH and CO in flared/vented natural gas into syngas or methanol. Specifically, it was shown that depending on greenhouse gas composition, dry methane reforming (DRM), reverse water-gas shift (RWGS), and CO methanation could be chosen to valorise emissions in an overall profitable and flexible operation scenario. The switchable process produced methanol and synthetic natural gas as its products, resulting in an annual income of €687m and annual operating expenses of €452m. The pre-tax profit was calculated at €234m, and at the end of the project, the net present value was calculated as €1.9b with a profitability index of 4.7€/€. The expected payback time of this process was ca. 4 years, and with a 35% internal rate of return (IRR). Most importantly, this process consumed 42.8m tonnes of CO annually. The sensitivity analysis revealed that variations in operation time, green hydrogen price, and products' prices significantly impacted the profitability of the process. Overall, this techno-economic analysis demonstrated that switchable catalysis in greenhouse gas utilisation processes is profitable, and thus it could play an important role in achieving net zero emissions.