Electrified combined reforming of methane process for more effective CO2 conversion to methanol: Process development and environmental impact assessment

Abstract

In this work, we developed an effective approach for the conversion of CO2 by incorporating the electrified combined reforming reactor (E-CRM). The process simulation and life cycle assessment (LCA) of the proposed process are conducted considering a variety of recycling ratios of the unreacted syngas to the main reformer using Aspen Plus software. The simulation results show that the electrification of the proposed reforming process can significantly improve the overall efficiency of the process compared to a reference process. The key factors such as hydrogen demand (88.4 % reduction), net electricity consumption (17 % reduction), thermal efficiency (16.7 % increase), and methanol production (7.5 % increase) are improved. Furthermore, the LCA of the proposed process is conducted using openLCA software and results are compared with those of the CO2 hydrogenation and conventional methanol production processes for various geographical locations in Canada. The LCA results showed that the E-CRM with 90 recycling of unreacted gases (E-CRM-90) is an environmentally attractive option with the lowest greenhouse gas emissions when the carbon intensity of the electricity is equal to or lower than that of the average value in Canada.