A System for the Combined Carbon Capture and Utilization to Produce Renewable Methanol from Biogas

Coupling of biogas upgrading and power-to-X is challenging due to the intermittent cheap energy availability. A system was designed that overcomes the technical challenges in this coupling. This is possible by alternating biogas upgrading and methanol synthesis in a reactor operating both as sorption-enhanced synthesis reactor and as upgrading unit by pressure swing adsorption. It was observed that this concept is feasible in both fixed- and fluidized-bed reactors, and the potential for economic performance improvement was quantified in approximately 20 % increase of the internal rate of return. A flexible reactor that operates both the CO2 conversion to methanol and the CO2 separation is conceptualized. The flexible process shows high economic potential to advance the penetration of power-to-X routes. image