In this work, a detailed techno-economic assessment is carried out for methanol synthesis process that utilizes Cu/ZnO catalyst. First, a base-case plant is designed using a commercial methanol process. The economic feasibility study was developed to identify the potential performance metrics of the future catalytic systems and the boundaries upon which the catalyst could impact the profitability of the methanol process. In particular, the performance indicators investigated in this work look at the case of higher per-pass conversion (by introduction of higher efficiency catalysts), and the potential of utilizing low pressure reactors that could minimize compression costs. The results of this work indicated that synthesizing a catalyst with higher per-pass conversion has no significant effect on the process profitability. However, reducing the methanol synthesis reaction pressure could lead to a substantial improvement in the profitability of the plant. Insights obtained from this work can be used as the basis for identifying the characteristics of the future catalytic systems that have the potential to significantly decrease the costs associated with the conventional methanol synthesis plants.

在这项工作中，对利用Cu / ZnO催化剂的甲醇合成工艺进行了详细的技术经济评估。首先，使用商业甲醇工艺设计基本案例工厂。进行了经济可行性研究，以确定未来催化系统的潜在性能指标以及该催化剂可能影响甲醇工艺利润的界限。特别是，在这项工作中研究的性能指标着眼于更高的单程转化率（通过引入更高效率的催化剂），以及利用低压反应器将压缩成本降至最低的潜力。这项工作的结果表明，合成具有更高单程转化率的催化剂对工艺的获利能力没有显着影响。然而，降低甲醇合成反应压力可以大大提高工厂的盈利能力。从这项工作中获得的见解可以用作确定未来催化系统特征的基础，这些催化系统具有显着降低与常规甲醇合成装置相关的成本的潜力。