(103c) Green Technology Solutions for Synthetic Fuels

The paper will present a study for alkaline water electrolysis (AWE) based ammonia, methanol and SNG production units using only a minimum number of equipment in order to reduce the investment cost.

Currently three trends can be observed leading to expectation of increasing demand for small-scale green chemical plants in the future.

First, focusing primarily on ammonia, safety and security considerations have led to transport restrictions affecting the reliability of supply leading to increased transportation costs for the supply of green chemicals. This has become an issue for sites that currently get their ammonia supply by rail or ship.

Second, there is an increasing share of electricity produced from renewable sources which are available in inconsistent quantities (e.g. wind and solar) sometimes exceeding demand. This surplus power can be used to produce hydrogen via water electrolysis. In case of ammonia, nitrogen can be supplied by an air separation unit. Such production of ammonia is free of carbon dioxide emissions, and can be considered “green ammonia”. In case of methanol and SNG CO₂ waste streams of chemical plant complexes or conventional power plants can be utilized. Such production of methanol and SNG reduces the carbon footprint of adjacent chemical complexes and power plants. These “green chemicals” can be used either as feedstock for other chemical processes or as a chemical energy storage in times of high energy production from renewable sources and low network load.

Third, new regulations implementing CO₂ quotas for natural gas usage make natural gas based productions in some regions less attractive.