Renewable hydrogen utilisation for the production of methanol

Abstract

Electrolytic hydrogen production is an efficient way of storing renewable energy generated electricity and securing the contribution of renewables in the future electricity supply. The use of this hydrogen for the production of methanol results in a liquid fuel that can be utilised directly with minor changes in the existing infrastructure. To utilise the renewable generated hydrogen for production of renewable methanol, a sustainable carbon source is needed. This carbon can be provided by biomass or CO2 in the flue gases of fossil fuel-fired power stations, cement factories, fermentation processes and water purification plants. Methanol production pathways via biomass gasification and CO2 recovery from the flue gasses of a fossil fuel-fired power station have been reviewed in this study. The cost of methanol production from biomass was found to lie in the range of 300–400 €/tonne of methanol, and the production cost of CO2 based methanol was between 500 and 600 €/tonne. Despite the higher production costs compared with methanol produced by conventional natural gas reforming (i.e. 100–200 €/tonne, aided by the low current price of natural gas), these new processes incorporate environmentally beneficial aspects that have to be taken into account.