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China’s first CO2 hydrogenation-to-methanol and co-production project has been put into operation. Author/Source: Date: October 12, 2022. Click-through rate: 37. Recently, Anyang Shunli Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. completed the construction and full-scale operation of China’s first LNG production facility that utilizes the ETL Process CRI-MFE technology for the green and low-carbon hydrogenation of CO2 into methanol. The total planned investment for this project is 700 million yuan. It utilizes the ETL proprietary green methanol synthesis process of Iceland Carbon Recycling Ltd., as well as a new domestic cryogenic method for purifying coke oven gas to separate LNG and capture CO2. Once the project is in operation, it will be possible to make comprehensive use of 360 million Nm3 of coke oven gas per year to produce 110,000 tons of methanol per year, as well as 70,000 tons of LNG per year, generating annual sales revenue of 560 million yuan. Reportedly, the Power Generation Group supplied an amine-based CO2 capture system for this project. The system captures CO2 from the flue gas of lime kilns, which is then used to synthesize methanol, a green fuel, together with hydrogen. It is capable of capturing 160,000 tons of CO2 annually. This is currently the largest CO2 capture and methanol synthesis project in China, and it holds great significance for the recycling of captured CO2 and the achievement of carbon neutrality goals. The process of this device uses flue gas from lime kilns at 150°C as the raw material; after cooling and dust removal, this gas enters the absorption tower, where it is absorbed by an organic amine solution to remove the low-concentration CO2 present in the flue gas. The liquid containing absorbed CO2 then goes to a desorption tower, where heating is used to release high-concentration CO2 gas. Further purification yields CO2 gas with a purity of over 98.5%. The captured CO2 gas is pressurized to 0.7 MPa using a compressor and sent to subsequent processes, where about 60% of the CO2 is combined with coke oven gas to produce methanol, along with liquefied natural gas as a by-product. As an emerging green chemical technology, CO2 hydrogenation to methanol has seen relatively rapid development both domestically and internationally in recent years. In 2009, Japanese company Mitsui Chemicals built a pilot plant for the production of methanol from carbon dioxide with an annual capacity of 100 tons. In 2012, the Icelandic company Carbon Cycle Incorporated built the world’s largest CO2-based fuel plant at Svartsengi in Iceland. This plant uses hydrogen produced by electrolyzing water in geothermal power plants to react with CO2 in order to produce methanol; it is capable of consuming 5,600 tons of CO2 per year to generate around 4,000 tons of methanol. The CO2 hydrogenation process for methanol synthesis can generate three types of industrial value: first, it recovers hydrogen and syngas from industrial production, which are then reacted with CO2 to produce methanol, thereby increasing the value of the product and reducing waste. Secondly, it is to improve the utilization rate of power plants; by taking advantage of the excess electrical energy resulting from the mismatch between supply and demand, this energy can be used for electrolytic water splitting to produce hydrogen, as well as for synthesizing methanol from CO2. This not only helps to balance peak and off-peak loads and increase equipment utilization, but also enhances grid stability and reduces carbon emissions. Third is hydrogen production through renewable energy power generation, which involves converting CO2 captured during coal chemical processing into methanol, thereby creating a low-carbon transportation fuel with no carbon emissions.