Comparative Technoeconomic Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment of Emerging Reactive Carbon Capture-to-Methanol Pathways

TL;DR

This study compares two new methods for making methanol from CO2, finding one is slightly cheaper and both are better for the environment than existing methods.

Contribution

The paper introduces and compares two novel reactive carbon capture-to-methanol pathways with detailed techno-economic and life cycle assessments.

Findings

The Direct RCC-to-MeOH pathway has a lower methanol production cost ($0.78/kg) than the Indirect RCC-to-CO pathway ($0.84/kg).

Both pathways have lower carbon intensities (0.45–0.51 kg-CO2e/kg) compared to baseline e-MeOH (0.54 kg-CO2e/kg).

The Indirect pathway requires syngas recompression, increasing its cost but offering potential benefits with lower catalyst and hydrogen needs.

Abstract

Our group recently developed dual-function materials
(DFMs) and
reactive carbon capture (RCC) processes for the selective production
of methanol (MeOH) or CO, offering two novel and unique pathways for
MeOH production. This study conducted a comparative techno-economic
analysis (TEA) of the two RCC pathways from exhaust CO2: 1) a “Direct RCC-to-MeOH” pathway and 2) an “Indirect
RCC-to-CO” pathway followed by MeOH synthesis. The “Direct
RCC-to-MeOH” pathway produced a lower levelized cost of MeOH
(LCOM) at $0.78/kg, compared to $0.84/kg for the “Indirect
RCC-to-CO” pathway. The key difference is the need to recompress
the syngas from RCC before MeOH synthesis in “Indirect RCC-to-CO.”
Nonetheless, with reduced catalyst costs and hydrogen requirements
for “RCC-to-CO,” this pathway merits further study to
produce syngas rather than MeOH. Both pathways are comparable in LCOM
to baseline e-MeOH production from CO2 hydrogenation ($0.72/kg)
while having lower carbon intensities (0.45 and 0.51 kg-CO2e/kg vs 0.54 kg-CO2e/kg).

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