Power-to-methanol: Techno-economic analysis of a regional, decentral case-study
Hans Gelten, Yashar S. Hajimolana, Wim de Jong, Bert Heesink, Hossein Nami, Benno Aalderink, Richard van Leeuwen
Abstract
This study investigates the decentral Power-to-Methanol economics for the situation in The Netherlands. Power-to-X processes are seen as a promising technology for balancing the energy market and enabling fossil-free pathways within the chemical industry. However, within literature there is a lot of variation in the levelized cost of methanol per production. The research presented in this paper consists of three steps, starting with an ASPEN Plus® simulation of different scenarios, followed by calculations of capital investment (CAPEX) and operational & maintenance costs (OPEX), finally resulting in the levelized cost of methanol. Results show that the operational cost greatly exceeds the capital costs, due to the high contributions of either H 2 as raw material or sustainable electricity if H 2 is produced on site. Levelized cost of sustainable methanol is calculated between 4,059 and 4,510 € /ton MeOH. This is twice as high compared to methanol generated with the same process using grey H 2 (2,244 € /ton MeOH) and a factor 6 more expensive compared to bulk MeOH from fossil industry (700 € /ton MeOH). Future trends in costs show that for decentral production, grey and sustainable MeOH can have a similar order of magnitude by 2050.