Inexperienced methanol could also be on the verge of a breakthrough – TechnoNews

One of many promising alternate options to fossil fuels is methanol, through which the worldwide delivery and logistics firm Maersk, amongst others, is investing for its future fleet of container ships. Nonetheless, there’s a drawback on the subject of methanol. At the moment, 99% of methanol manufacturing relies on coal and pure gasoline, and that is as removed from inexperienced because it will get. DTU has contributed to creating a brand new methodology for producing biogas-based methanol.

“When methanol is produced from biogas, methanol is green because it comes from a renewable source. Biogas is a product of degraded waste from households, agriculture, and production,” explains Affiliate Professor Philip Fosbøl, DTU Chemical Engineering, one of many researchers behind the mission.

Within the autumn of 2022, the expertise was put in in a 40-foot container at Lemvig Biogas, and a yr later the plant produced the primary liters of methanol.

Methanol with out hydrogen added

Historically, inexperienced methanol is produced from CO₂ by including hydrogen. The hydrogen is obtained by means of a course of known as electrolysis, the place water molecules are cut up into hydrogen and oxygen. However electrolysis requires a big power provide within the type of electrical energy, and though electrical energy costs have fallen, it’s nonetheless so costly that this type of methanol manufacturing can not compete with methanol produced from fossil sources. DTU’s new methodology doesn’t require the addition of hydrogen to kind methanol.

“We take biogas and turn it into synthesis gas, and then we take the synthesis gas and turn it into methanol. And we have a plant that can recycle and use CO₂ together with hydrogen and produce even more methanol,” says Fosbøl.

Biogas usually consists of two-thirds methane and one-third CO₂. Synthesis gasoline consists of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. To get from biogas to synthesis gasoline, a catalyst is required to make the method occur, and normally issues come up with deposition of coal on the catalyst. However utilizing a brand new and revolutionary catalyst, DTU researchers get rid of this drawback.

Since hydrogen is produced by the formation of synthesis gasoline, there isn’t a want so as to add hydrogen to provide methanol. Nonetheless, since biogas incorporates one-third CO₂, it’s essential to recirculate CO₂ along with hydrogen from the synthesis gasoline with a purpose to additionally convert CO₂ into methanol. This course of is brand-new and patented, and is likely one of the secrets and techniques of nice effectivity. The completed product consists of 95% pure methanol, and 99.9% might be achieved if extra hydrogen from one other supply is added. General, the tactic has been a breakthrough for inexperienced methanol manufacturing.

“I do believe we’re the first ever to demonstrate that you can produce methanol from biogas,” says Fosbøl.

The important thing phrase is flexibility

The massive biogas crops have usually targeted on producing biomethane for the gasoline grid. The expertise DTU researchers are engaged on right here can also be meant for small biogas crops that can’t ship their biomethane into the gasoline grid. As a substitute, they’re compelled to burn the biogas for warmth or electrical energy manufacturing.

There are additionally biogas crops which might be positioned at too nice a distance from hydrogen producers, and due to this fact should not have the chance to transform CO₂ into biogas by way of hydrogen enter. There are numerous such crops not solely in Denmark, but additionally in Germany, the place there are about 10,000 of those smaller biogas crops, and right here the brand new expertise might be extraordinarily engaging, says Fosbøl. For the DTU researcher and his colleagues, it has been essential to create a methanol plant that was versatile, as a result of future wants can change rapidly.

“Our plant is designed to operate in a future where you adapt to changing needs. We can operate with different feed gases and switch very quickly,” he says.

This implies you possibly can often make the most of all the biogas, so each methane and CO₂ are transformed to methanol. Generally you possibly can solely produce methanol from methane, and different instances you possibly can select to make methanol solely from CO₂, whereas the methane is utilized for gasoline manufacturing. This makes it extremely versatile, explains Fosbøl.

If biogas can’t be disposed of for the gasoline grid, there may even be a necessity for storage. And changing the biogas into liquid within the type of methanol is an apparent answer, because it occupies a a lot smaller quantity, after which the biogas crops themselves can retailer the gasoline over an extended time frame.

Methanol produced from biogas is less expensive than conventional e-methanol produced from CO₂ and hydrogen. However it’s nonetheless dearer than methanol produced from coal and pure gasoline. One answer that Fosbøl envisions is to tax black methanol for a time frame, making it dearer than inexperienced methanol. On this method, inexperienced methanol can turn into worthwhile to provide, and as manufacturing strategies are developed, inexperienced methanol will turn into aggressive on regular market phrases.

Subsequent steps

The methanol plant that’s now up and operating is an illustration plant. Which means it’s now not simply on a laboratory scale, however has “moved into reality,” because the DTU affiliate professor phrases it. It might produce 400 liters of methanol every day if it runs 24/7, however the every day manufacturing has been lower than 100 liters as a result of manufacturing has solely run in the course of the daytime.

“The big breakthrough is that we’ve been able to do this without any breakdowns,” states Philip Fosbøl, who explains that the longest steady manufacturing interval has been 72 hours. The subsequent milestone will likely be manufacturing for 500 hours straight.

The plant at Lemvig Biogas can convert 10 m³ biogas per hour. The subsequent step will likely be upscaling to 200 m³ per hour, equal to a full-scale industrial facility. However this requires large-scale assist.

“The research project we have carried out has a budget of just under DKK 20 million, but the next scale-up can easily cost in the region of DKK 100 million, so it’s obviously something that requires public support,” says Fosbøl.

The mission has to date been supported by the Danish Vitality Company’s Vitality Know-how Improvement and Demonstration Programme (EUDP), which has included three companions along with DTU. Pentair Union has headed the development of the processing plant, whereas the demonstration plant was constructed by Elplatek. Lemvig Biogas has equipped biogas to the demonstration plant.

When DTU’s expertise is absolutely developed, it will likely be capable of produce as much as 60,000 tons of methanol from a typical massive Danish biogas producer. With an annual requirement of 750,000 tons of methanol for Maersk’s future fleet of 25 methanol-powered container ships, it’ll require a lot of biogas crops simply to cowl this want.