Abstract
Production of alternative CO2-based products may play a major role in decoupling fossil resources to the economy’s needs. CO2 hydrogenation is one of the most readily operational CO2 conversion pathways to produce chemicals. Beyond this, electrochemical, photoelectrochemical, and photochemical CO2 conversion routes have gained attention as long-term direct conversion routes. This work analyzes under what conditions H2 could be a sustainable intermediate vector in producing renewable hydrogen-based methanol (hMeOH) and compares it with the fossil-based (fMeOH) and the emerging electrochemical-based (eMeOH) routes. The technological and exogenous drivers are identified, and the trade-offs between alternatives are assessed under an integrated life cycle approach. The deployment of low carbon hMeOH is locally conditioned to use electricity with carbon intensities of 150 kg of CO2e/MWh or lower. Higher electrolysis efficiency (>70%) and product concentration (>40 wt %) are needed in the eMeOH route to be competitive with the H2-based path. Substitution of fMeOH by wind-powered hMeOH could avoid substantial CO2 emissions (−1.57 kg of CO2e/kg) and fossil resources (−0.61 kg of oileq/kg) but at the cost of almost triple the impact of land use.
Highlights
Even under an anomalous economic situation affected by COVID-19, global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2020 were still over 31.5 Gt of CO2, a 5.8% drop from the previous year.[1]
There exist some specific industrial sectors which have intrinsic CO2 emissions related to energy and with material sources needed in their activities
This study aims to compare the environmental profile of producing renewable MeOH using H2 as an intermediate against the conventional fossil-based MeOH and alternative direct electrochemical CO2-based MeOH pathways
Summary
Even under an anomalous economic situation affected by COVID-19, global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2020 were still over 31.5 Gt of CO2, a 5.8% drop from the previous year.[1]. The expected energy transition promoted by the massive installation of day-by-day cheaper wind and solar energy, together with improvements in energy efficiency or heat insulation, will provoke a severe reduction in the annual carbon budget in numerous economic activities.[6,7] there exist some specific industrial sectors which have intrinsic CO2 emissions related to energy and with material sources needed in their activities. These are called “hard-to-abate sectors” (e.g., cement, iron and steel, paper, etc.), and additional measures are requested to decouple their production process to the use of fossil resources as identified in several decarbonization roadmaps.[8,9]
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