Techno-economic and climate impact analysis of carbon utilization process for methanol production from blast furnace gas over Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst

This paper presents conceptual design, economic evaluation, and sensitivity analysis of a commercial scale carbon-utilization process that produces methanol (MeOH) from blast furnace gas (BFG). Three process cases that use different N2 compositions in the feed (Case 1: 40%, Case 2: 35%, and Case 3: 30%) are simulated. The kinetic model over a commercial Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst is used to consider the effect of N2 on the reaction and to find the optimal process synthesis condition. The proposed process yields 78.3–113.3 ktMeOH/y with 32.2–40.2% energy efficiency, and after heat integration it has no requirement for external heat. Case 3 improves energy efficiency by 5.2% compared to the conventional electricity production process from BFG. The process is assessed using techno-economic and environmental metrics. The lowest minimum selling price of US$ 902/tMeOH and the highest potential to reduce CO2 emissions of 3.9 tCO2/tMeOH are obtained for Case 3. Sensitivity analysis for H2, electricity price and major economic assumptions shows that Case 3 is the better option in the ranges of H2 price, except high-priced H2 produced by solar energy, and in ranges of electricity price using current technology. Case 3 is a techno-economically viable alternative under positive assumptions.