A Comparative Techno-Economic Analysis of Renewable Methanol Synthesis Pathways from Biomass and CO2: Preprint

Conference · Thu Sep 23 04:00:00 EDT 2021

OSTI ID:1823019

Harris, Kylee; Grim, R. Gary; Tao, Ling

Global demand for methanol as both a chemical precursor and a fuel additive is rising. At the same time, numerous sustainable methanol production pathways are under development which, if commercialized, could present significant environmental benefits over traditional methanol synthesis pathways. There is a need to harmonize the analyses of sustainable pathways using a consistent techno-economic approach to evaluate the potential for commercialization of various pathways. This analysis considers economic and environmental factors critical to market acceptance of three sustainable pathways versus a commercial baseline. We suggest that biomass gasification to methanol represents a near-term viable pathway with high technology readiness level and commercially competitive market price. However, long-term solutions should consider CO2 electrolysis pathways which offer further improvements in sustainability metrics to support global decarbonization efforts.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Bioenergy Technologies Office (EE-3B)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1823019
• Report Number(s): NREL/CP-5100-78547; MainId:32464; UUID:cce9d9b2-f619-4528-a96b-16824dccd059; MainAdminID:61809
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

BIOMASS FUELS
biomass
carbon dioxide
hydrogenation
methanol
power-to-liquids
techno-economic analysis
waste carbon conversion