Citation:
P. Galindo Cifre and O. Badr, Renewable hydrogen utilisation for the production
of methanol, Energy Conversion and Management, Volume 48, Issue 2, February
2007, Pages 519-527.
Abstract:
Electrolytic hydrogen production is an efficient way of storing renewable energy
generated electricity and securing the contribution of renewables in the future
electricity supply. The use of this hydrogen for the production of methanol
results in a liquid fuel that can be utilised directly with minor changes in the
existing infrastructure. To utilise the renewable generated hydrogen for
production of renewable methanol, a sustainable carbon source is needed. This
carbon can be provided by biomass or CO2 in the flue gases of fossil fuel-fired
power stations, cement factories, fermentation processes and water purification
plants. Methanol production pathways via biomass gasification and CO2 recovery
from the flue gasses of a fossil fuel-fired power station have been reviewed in
this study. The cost of methanol production from biomass was found to lie in the
range of 300–400 €/tonne of methanol, and the production cost of CO2 based
methanol was between 500 and 600 €/tonne. Despite the higher production costs
compared with methanol produced by conventional natural gas reforming (i.e.
100–200 €/tonne, aided by the low current price of natural gas), these new
processes incorporate environmentally beneficial aspects that have to be taken
int