PNNL

Abstract

The goal of this project is to develop a prototype system that integrates the capture and catalytic hydrogenation of CO2 into methanol in the same solvent. Ultimately, this integrated approach could provide a technology with projected reductions to capital and operating costs by at least 20% relative to a benchmark methanol synthesis via gas-phase CO2 hydrogenation. There were five primary objectives for the project: 1. Optimize the selections of both the catalysts and the CO¬¬2 capture solvents to achieve high conversion (>80%) and high selectivity (>90%) toward methanol in the targeted processing ranges (100-180°C, 1-60 bar). 2. Design a reactor system that provides a fixed catalyst surface area and high-efficiency heat exchange to assure compact modular processing. 3. Build and test a reactor system and demonstrate in a bench scale continuous flow system, and use the operating data to refine the comparison to existing conversion technologies. 4. Refine techno economic (TEA) and Tech-to-Market (TTM) analyses using the experimental data obtained from the bench-scale system. 5. Use the experimental data and TEA/TTM projections to develop a conceptual design for a pre-commercial system that targets a specific market opportunity.