Techno-economic evaluation of methanol production using by-product gases from iron and steel works

Aiming at achieving large-scale CO₂ mitigation in the iron & steel industries via efficient utilization of the by-product gases such as the coke oven gas (COG) and Linz-Donawitz converter gas (LDG) in the iron & steel works, conceptual design of a LDG-to-methanol process (option 1) and two LDG/COG-to-methanol processes (options 2 and 3 without or with H₂ purification, respectively) was implemented using the process simulator Aspen Plus. Both the process development and economic analysis for all the three proposed options were conducted to determine the technical performance via indicators such as the energy efficiency and CO₂ reduction rate, and the profitability via indicators such as the total capital investment and the net methanol production cost. Meanwhile, six case studies under different recycle ratios (0.5–0.95) were conducted for each proposed option to investigate the effects of recycle ratio on the technical and economic performance. The techno-economic analysis results clearly show that all the three proposed options are highly efficient for CO₂ mitigation via methanol production using the by-product gases LDG and COG. More specifically, options 1 and 3 seem to be more energy efficient and eco-friendly than option 2, in terms of energy efficiency and CO₂ reduction rate. Whereas, options 2 and 3 seem to be more economically feasible than option 1, considering the net methanol production cost. From the aspects of both technical and economic performance, option 3 is considered as the most competitive process. This work provides candidate process routes for the iron & steel industries to become more sustainable and profitable, especially in the event of a high carbon tax and a low H₂ price in the future.