CO2 Capture and Conversion to Methanol with EEMPA
Penn collection
Degree type
Discipline
Subject
Chemical Engineering
Engineering
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
Distributor
Related resources
Author
Contributor
Abstract
Increasing amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has been a primary contributor to the changing climate is having disastrous impacts on our planet and its inhabitants. Creating new strategies to combat the ongoing climate crisis has gained significant momentum in recent years with the efforts to slow and reverse climate change. Of these promising new technologies, the implementation of carbon capture and utilization (CCU) has been recognized to have a high potential by taking in CO2 emitted from point sources and using it to produce a value-added product. With a wide range of methanol uses and large amounts of CO2 emitted during the typical process of industrial methanol production, methanol is an attractive product for production through CCU. Through the proposed process, a water-lean binding organic liquid, N-(2-ethoxyethyl)-3- morpholinopropan-1-amine (EEMPA), is used to capture CO2 emitted in the flue gas of a coal fired power plant through an integrated capture and conversion process. The process begins with an absorption column to remove CO2 from the flue gas by absorption to EEMPA. The bound CO2 then undergoes a hydrogenation reaction to desorb CO2 from EEMPA and to produce methanol. In the final stages of the process, the mixture undergoes a series of separations to recycle EEMPA back to the absorption column, to recycle the excess hydrogen back to the hydrogenation reaction, and to isolate the desired methanol product with a mass purity of 99.6%. The proposed project was found to be carbon negative and pairing it with an aggressive carbon tax, influenced by the precedent set by other countries, or charging a green premium indicates that the process has the potential to become profitable. Currently, the project’s return on investment stands at 19.33%, the internal rate of return at 21.97%, and the net present value is $3,734,600.