Life cycle assessment of methanol production by natural gas route

Abstract

Climate change is becoming a major concern worldwide, and sustainable development of the processes is becoming ever so important. Being one of the largest chemical commodities produced and consumed worldwide, the sustainability study of the methanol production process was conducted using a life cycle assessment approach. The natural gas route was selected for this study. The ‘Cradle to Gate’ approach was used to calculate the impact associated with the methanol produce from raw material extraction to the final product. To assess hotspots, the process was divided into 5 sub-sections. The reforming process resulted in a higher carbon footprint. The distillation and synthesis sections were the major contributor to ecological as well as human toxicity. Coal-based electricity production created a higher impact compared to other conventional and non-conventional energy sources. Based on our analysis, the recommendations are given based on several materials and impact categories such as electricity consumption, catalyst regeneration, metal extraction, and processing to make methanol production more environmentally sustainable.