Advances in the techno-economic assessment to identify the ideal plant configuration of a new biomass-to-liquid process

Abstract

In 2020, the European methanol demand stood at 9.71 Million Tonnes. While it is expected that the demand continues to grow, the feedstock is currently fossil-based. Therefore, a change in the feedstock towards renewable resources such as renewable electricity and biogenic residues is needed. To evaluate their potential contribution to a sustainable energy transition, however, it is necessary to identify a process design reliant on the site-specific boundary conditions related to the local biomass potential and the availability of renewably generated electricity. While biomass-based pathways benefit from more established technologies, the addition of sustainably produced hydrogen offers the chance to boost the extent of carbon utilization dramatically. Different plant scales and setups should be deployed based on feedstock availability and transport distances. Methanol synthesis is a viable method for producing fuel since it has a high selectivity for methanol regarding direct CO2 conversion. Furthermore, methanol is a very appealing intermediate chemical due to its various applications as a fuel and feedstock for the chemical industry. To identify a site-specific setup of a sustainable methanol production plant (i.e., Grade AA), different process options are implemented, such as a pure biomass-to-liquid process with two different steam utilization strategies, a power&biomass-to-liquid process, and a power-to-liquid process. The processes are evaluated based on detailed flowsheet simulations in Aspen Plus®, and to extend the process analysis, a techno-economic evaluation methodology incorporated in the in-house software tool TEPET (Techno-Economic Process Evaluation Tool) is applied. Hence, an advantageous process design is defined and depicted for the European region. Furthermore, a correlation between economic boundary conditions, such as the electricity and heat market, and the process design will be presented. Finally, the potential contribution of the investigated power&biomass-to-liquid process to a renewable methanol economy is discussed.