Fulham et al. (2024): Managing intermittency of renewable power in sustainable production of methanol, coupled with direct air capture

George J. Fulham, Paula V. Mendoza-Moreno, Ewa J. Marek IN: Energy and Environmental Science, DOI: 10.1039/D4EE00933A

Coupling direct air capture (DAC) with methanol production is a technically attainable opportunity for CO₂ capture and utilisation (CCU). The process, known as power-to-methanol (PtM), consumes large amounts of renewable electricity for water electrolysis and DAC. However, the time-variability of renewable power remains a major challenge. Here, the authors consider erecting a wind farm as part of a PtM facility and propose using four parallel reactors to adjust the methanol production according to daily wind power generation, which we model for 90 onshore and offshore locations with real-world data. Batteries and reserve storage of compressed H₂ and CO₂ allow methanol production during near-zero availability of wind power. They investigate different operation strategies, aiming to either minimise the reserve storage or maximise production, ultimately finding minimised storage as more cost-effective.

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