Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of CO 2 Utilization journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jcou Feasibility study of methanol production plant from hydrogen and captured carbon dioxide D. Bellotti ⁎ , M. Rivarolo, L. Magistri, A.F. Massardo TPG, University of Genoa, Italy ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Power to methanol CO 2 sequestration Thermo-economic analysis Innovative methanol production ABSTRACT This paper aims to present a feasibility study of the innovative plant for methanol synthesis from carbon dioxide- sequestered by fossil fuel power plant and hydrogen, which is produced by water electrolyzer employing the over-production on the electrical grid. The thermo-economic analysis is performed in the framework of the MefCO 2 H2020 EU project and it is referred to the German economic scenario, properly taking into account the real market costs and cost functions for different components of the plant. Three different plant capacities for methanol production (4000 10,000 and 50,000 ton/year) have been investigated, assuming an average cost for electrical energy to feed electrolysers and analyzing the influence of the most significant parameters (oxygen selling option, methanol selling price and electrolysers’ capital cost) on the profitability of the plant. The analysis has been performed in W-ECoMP, software for the thermo-economic analysis and plant opti- mization developed by the University of Genoa. 1. Introduction Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are one of the most important environmental issues of the twenty first century. The largest source of GHG is the carbon dioxide and its emission has tremendously increased in the last decades, mainly due to fossil fuels combustion for the power generation and the automotive transportation. Moreover, the global energy demand is expected to double by the 2050 and the fossil fuels exploitation will be still predominant in comparison with the renewable energy penetration that, anyway, is increasing as well [1]. In consideration of this, the European Commis- sion is adopting more and more stringent environmental regulations that push the researchers to study innovative systems for the CO 2 emissions reduction by developing new fuels, which have low carbon footprint for the energy production. Another important aspect is related to the increasing renewable installed capacity in the energy supply grid and its integration with traditional power plants: the strongly stochastic and intermittent nature of the renewable energy sources (RES), in particular wind and solar, makes the power output variable and unpredictable. This translates into issues like system balancing and capacity adequacy that, in turn, result in difficult operating management strategy for traditional power plants and economic losses as well. The strong development of unpredictable RES, such as solar and wind, which has the priority of dispatchment to the energy market, has caused significant issues to traditional power plants (i.e. combined cycles): forcing them to operate in strong off-de- sign conditions at lower efficiencies and frequent startup/shutdown that reduce their lifetime as well. The power-to-liquid systems seem to represent a valiant solution for the future energy scenarios: a PtL technology concerns a process that is able to absorb energy (i.e. the overproduction of RES on the grid), converting and storing that energy in chemical form. The conversion of renewable energy into the more convenient form of liquid energy carriers can be an effective way to moderate the RES intermittency and stabilize the electrical grid, thus avoiding the con- tinuous shut downs that are affecting a number of traditional power plants. Moreover, in comparison with the gas form, the liquid form presents less problems in transportation from the both safety and in- frastructure point of view. One of the most promising products for the PtL systems is methanol (formula CH 3 OH): it presents liquid form at atmospheric condition; the melting and boiling point are -97.6 °C and 64.7 °C, respectively. Methanol is one of the most important building blocks in chemical industry; it is used as feedstock to synthetize chemicals derivatives such as formaldehyde, MTBE and acetic acid, which, in turn, are used in products like adhesives, subfloors, solvents, washer fluid etc…[2]. Moreover methanol is largely used in energy-related applications (about 40% of world production). Methanol presents excellent com- bustion properties: despite its energy density is about half of the ga- soline energy density (20.1 MJ/kg for methanol, 44.3 MJ/kg for http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcou.2017.07.001 Received 5 April 2017; Received in revised form 24 May 2017; Accepted 4 July 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: daria.bellotti@edu.unige.it (D. Bellotti). Journal of CO₂ Utilization 21 (2017) 132–138 2212-9820/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. MARK