(764c) Process Ecoefficiency of Methanol and Dmc Production From CO2: A Comparative Analysis

Environmental performance of products and processes has gained importance as the industry is trying to minimize its environmental impacts. Of special concern to society, are climate effects associated to the rise of CO₂ atmospheric concentration. To mitigate emissions effects, processes are searched that use CO₂ as raw material. It is worth noting that an emission mitigating process should necessarily be a commodity as large production scale are required. With this orientation, methanol and DMC are promising alternative products: the first is a very attractive additive to diesel, and it blends with gasoline to yield a high octane fuel with low Reid vapor pressure. Methanol, on the other hand, is considered as a promising energy alternative besides displaying a wide range of industrial applications. However, in order to claim that a given technology is clean, its ecoefficiency should be addressed with quantitative sustainability indicators. In this sense, the present  work selects a set of environmental metrics along with safety and economical (CAPEX and OPEX) indicators. A comparative analysis is presented for two potentially green processes: (i) methanol synthesis; and (ii) DMC synthesis. Furthermore, the later synthesis is approached in two alternatives, a direct and an indirect reaction path. In the methodology used, process simulation and optimization are employed to compare process performances at maximum yields.