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The modular design will mean that the technology can be fitted quickly and cost-effectively
24/07/2015
Partnership to build CO2-to-methanol modules
Could be used to reduce industrial emissions
Helen Tunnicliffe
ENGINEERING firm Cofely Fabricom has joined forces with Iceland’s Carbon Recycling International (CRI) to develop and build a modular system for industrial installation to turn captured CO2 into methanol.
The partners say that the modules could be used by large industrial carbon emitters such as in the chemical, power and steel industries. As companies seek to reduce their industrial emissions, finding such ways to reduce emissions will become increasingly important. The modular design will mean that the technology can be fitted quickly and cost-effectively.
Nigel Carlton, UK CEO of Cofely Fabricom, which is part of the ENGIE group, explains that his company will provide the engineering project management and module construction expertise.
The modules themselves will be based on a process developed by CRI that uses CO2 and renewable power to produce methanol. In the proprietary emission-to-liquid (ETL) process, water is split using renewable energy in an electrochemical process. The hydrogen from this is then reacted with captured CO2 in a low-temperature catalytic synthesis process to make the methanol. The methanol can then be used directly as a fuel or as a chemical feedstock.
CRI currently operates one industrial-scale plant for the process in Svartsengi, Iceland, that was recently expanded to have a capacity of 4,000 t/y.
“Cofely Fabricom has the experience and resources that will allow CRI to scale-up to deliver and deploy rapidly modular solutions which produce sustainable low carbon intensity fuel and meet our clients’ expectations of light capital investment and high energy efficiency,” says KC Tran, CEO and co-founder of CRI.
