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

Ruxing Gao, Chundong Zhang, Geunjae Kwak, Yun Jo Lee, Seok Chang Kang, Guofeng Guan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

37 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number112819
JournalEnergy Conversion and Management
Volume213
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jun 2020

Keywords

  • CO mitigation
  • Coke oven gas
  • Economic analysis
  • Linz-Donawitz converter gas
  • Methanol synthesis

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Techno-economic evaluation of methanol production using by-product gases from iron and steel works'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this