Techno-economic analysis of a glycerol to methanol, ethylene glycol and 1,2-propanediol cogeneration process integrated with biomass chemical looping hydrogen generation

Abstract

Glycerol hydrogenolysis to alcohols such as methanol, ethylene glycol and 1,2-propanediol is regarded as a promising technology. Nevertheless, conversion of fossil fuels to H2 suffers high CO2 emissions. Therefore, a new glycerol to methanol, ethylene glycol and 1,2-propanediol process integrated with biomass chemical looping hydrogen generation was designed and simulated via Aspen Plus. The prediction results demonstrated that under the flow rate of glycerol 20 t/h and H2 feed 2.4 t/h, the output of methanol, ethylene glycol and 1,2-propanediol was 11095, 1142 and 5000 kg/h, respectively. It also demonstrated that the total efficiency of energy for the proposed process was 53.8%. Additionally, under the condition of glycerol price 725 $/t and corn straw price 59 $/t, the production cost of methanol, ethylene glycol and 1,2-propanediol was 310, 523 and 1100 $/t, respectively. Moreover, the return on investment as well as payback period were 93% and 0.85 years, respectively. Additionally, sensitivities analysis results showed that glycerol price was responsible for the largest impact factor, whereas the influence of oxygen carrier price was relatively small.