TY - JOUR
T1 - A Technoeconomic Model Coupled with HYSYS to Analyze the Electroreduction of Carbon Dioxide to Ethanol
AU - Pickett, Isabelle
AU - Vo, Trang
AU - Wu, Ho Yan
AU - Expósito, Antonio José
N1 - Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Department of Chemical Engineering at
the University of Bath for providing the funding necessary to carry out this
investigation. The authors acknowledge AspenTech for allowing the publication of this research. References and screen images from Aspen HYSYS
were used and reprinted with permission from Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech, Aspen HYSYS, and the AspenTech leaf logo are trademarks of
Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved.
Data Availability Statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
PY - 2023/2/12
Y1 - 2023/2/12
N2 - This research develops a technoeconomic analysis to study the profitability of ethanol production from CO2 electroreduction. A HYSYS simulation is used to calculate the separation costs, a challenge in previous models available in literature. The profitability of a 10 000 kg per day CO2 electroreduction plant to produce ethanol is studied. An optimization of the pressure swing adsorber and distillation tower, which greatly influence the total cost of the plant (≈20% of total cost), is carried out, obtaining a total cost of separation of £1.94 (Formula presented.) 106. The study demonstrates that reducing the voltage applied to values around 0.5 V, i.e., by increasing the pH up to 12 makes the process economically feasible with a current density over 15 mA cm−2. It also shows that the process is economically feasible using a current density of 5 mA cm−2 if the electricity cost from renewable sources drops to 2.0 (Formula presented.) 10−2 £ kWh−1. Finally, it is proved that if catalyst stability is not considered, some catalysts currently available in the literature can be used with a positive economic income. The results of this research show that the industrial electroreduction of ethanol can be feasible and can attract interest in the industrial adoption of the technology.
AB - This research develops a technoeconomic analysis to study the profitability of ethanol production from CO2 electroreduction. A HYSYS simulation is used to calculate the separation costs, a challenge in previous models available in literature. The profitability of a 10 000 kg per day CO2 electroreduction plant to produce ethanol is studied. An optimization of the pressure swing adsorber and distillation tower, which greatly influence the total cost of the plant (≈20% of total cost), is carried out, obtaining a total cost of separation of £1.94 (Formula presented.) 106. The study demonstrates that reducing the voltage applied to values around 0.5 V, i.e., by increasing the pH up to 12 makes the process economically feasible with a current density over 15 mA cm−2. It also shows that the process is economically feasible using a current density of 5 mA cm−2 if the electricity cost from renewable sources drops to 2.0 (Formula presented.) 10−2 £ kWh−1. Finally, it is proved that if catalyst stability is not considered, some catalysts currently available in the literature can be used with a positive economic income. The results of this research show that the industrial electroreduction of ethanol can be feasible and can attract interest in the industrial adoption of the technology.
KW - CO electroreduction
KW - ethanol
KW - HYSYS
KW - separation costs
KW - technoeconomic models
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85148020633&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/adts.202200782
DO - 10.1002/adts.202200782
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85148020633
SN - 2513-0390
JO - Advanced Theory and Simulations
JF - Advanced Theory and Simulations
M1 - 2200782
ER -
