Solar-Supplied Biomass Gasification for the One-Step Synthesis of Methanol and Dimethyl Ether

Abstract

The integration of novel processes and technologies in a sustainable way with the purpose of achieving a greater energy-process intensification will be beneficial in chemical and process engineering from both the economic and environmental point of view. Especially, it would be really advantageous to employ a combination of various energy sources (renewable and non-renewable) or minimum CO2 emission pathways in the chemical process industry. Owing to this, power generation from clean and emission free sources plays a key role in the sustainability of an intensified process. Particularly, there is a need to provide energy in form of steam from alternative sources rather than from traditional or common technologies. A concentrated solar power (CSP) plant is proposed in the present paper as a potential process for power generation. Afterwards, a biomass gasification process driven by solar energy to produce syngas is suggested. The resulting syngas can be employed as a chemical, fuel or energy vector. However, one obstacle is to deal with the operating temperature of the gasification process that commonly varies from 750 °C to 1,000 °C, while the steam generated in a solar plant is slightly over 400 °C. Therefore, the various effective parameters and operating conditions in the gasification process should be taken into account to address the drawbacks encountered in a low temperature operation in order to accomplish the goals of the process. Finally, this solar driven gasification process is coupled with a methanol/dimethyl ether production unit establishing a renewable pathway for chemical production independent of fossil fuel back-up through the process.