(117i) Sustainable Carbon Capture and Utilization Process Evaluation from Economic, and Environmental Perspectives

There is much research on carbon capture and utilization (CCU). Promising CCU products for many CCU reactions are being analyzed and evaluated. However, in most cases, CCU products are ranked by only market size or reaction stoichiometry. For example, A. Otto et al (2015) established special selection criteria to identify and rank CO₂ conversion reactions in the literature based on economic and environmental relevance. Based on their investigation, 23 bulk chemicals were ranked quantitatively. However, their selection criteria didn’t consider process design.

In this study, process design for promising CCU processes was conducted. Process modeling is performed for eleven bulk chemical products that have more than 0.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) market size. Those are calcium formate, formic acid, formaldehyde, dimethyl carbonate, dimethyl ether, urea, ethylene oxide, acetic acid, methyl acrylic acid, and oxalic acid. Techno-economic analysis (TEA) and Life cycle assessment (LCA) for each process was computed. Here, this study proposes a novel indicator, called Sustainable Feasibility Index (SFI). SFI is an indicator which integrates market size, levelized cost of product (LCP), and global warming impact (GWI). Based on SFI, ranking and quantification of emerging CCU processes have been done. Finally, the case study was conducted to discuss the reduction of CO₂ through the application of CCU from three different perspectives: CO₂, H₂, and electricity source point of view.

From the investigated CCU processes, methanol, acetic acid, DME, formic acid, and calcium formate were identified as the most feasible CCU processes based on SFI indicator. Also, the case study shows that switching CO₂ sources has the critical impact on both LCP and GWI perspectives.