Carbon dioxide utilisation for production of transport fuels: process and economic analysis

• Published in: Energy & environmental science 2015-06, Vol.8 (6), p.1775-1789
• Main Authors: Dimitriou, Ioanna, García-Gutiérrez, Pelayo, Elder, Rachael H, Cuéllar-Franca, Rosa M, Azapagic, Adisa, Allen, Ray W. K
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biogas; Carbon dioxide; Conversion; Industrial engineering; Liquid fuels; Plants (organisms); Power plants; Production costs
• ISSN: 1754-5692; 1754-5706
• DOI: 10.1039/c4ee04117h

Utilising CO 2 as a feedstock for chemicals and fuels could help mitigate climate change and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. For this reason, there is an increasing world-wide interest in carbon capture and utilisation (CCU). As part of a broader project to identify key technical advances required for sustainable CCU, this work considers different process designs, each at a high level of technology readiness and suitable for large-scale conversion of CO 2 into liquid hydrocarbon fuels, using biogas from sewage sludge as a source of CO 2 . The main objective of the paper is to estimate fuel production yields and costs of different CCU process configurations in order to establish whether the production of hydrocarbon fuels from commercially proven technologies is economically viable. Four process concepts are examined, developed and modelled using the process simulation software Aspen Plus® to determine raw materials, energy and utility requirements. Three design cases are based on typical biogas applications: (1) biogas upgrading using a monoethanolamine (MEA) unit to remove CO 2 , (2) combustion of raw biogas in a combined heat and power (CHP) plant and (3) combustion of upgraded biogas in a CHP plant which represents a combination of the first two options. The fourth case examines a post-combustion CO 2 capture and utilisation system where the CO 2 removal unit is placed right after the CHP plant to remove the excess air with the aim of improving the energy efficiency of the plant. All four concepts include conversion of CO 2 to CO via a reverse water-gas-shift reaction process and subsequent conversion to diesel and gasoline via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. The studied CCU options are compared in terms of liquid fuel yields, energy requirements, energy efficiencies, capital investment and production costs. The overall plant energy efficiency and production costs range from 12-17% and £15.8-29.6 per litre of liquid fuels, respectively. A sensitivity analysis is also carried out to examine the effect of different economic and technical parameters on the production costs of liquid fuels. The results indicate that the production of liquid hydrocarbon fuels using the existing CCU technology is not economically feasible mainly because of the low CO 2 separation and conversion efficiencies as well as the high energy requirements. Therefore, future research in this area should aim at developing novel CCU technologies which should primarily focus on optimising t