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Techno-economic analysis of methanol and ammonia co-producing process using CO2 from blast furnace gas

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Abstract

In steel manufacturing plants, blast furnace gas is generated from a furnace in which steel ore, coke and limestone are heated and melted. It is commonly used to produce electricity or released to the atmosphere in general; however, it can be utilized as a carbon source to produce C1 value-added chemicals. In this study, we propose two production schemes for methanol production and co-production of methanol and ammonia from blast furnace gas. Both cases were simulated using Aspen Plus V12 and economics was evaluated using Aspen Process Economic Analyzer (APEA). As a result, the methanol production case produced 99.4 wt% 232 t/day of methanol and the co-production case produced 97.7 wt%, 453.4 t/day of ammonia and 99.8 wt%, 263 t/day of methanol. The total annual cost of the methanol production case is US 121.6 M$/y and US 222.1 M$/y at the co-production case. The NPVs are −810.4 M$ in the methanol production case and −981.3 M$ in the co-production case, respectively. By sensitivity analysis, it is shown that the co-production case can be more economically feasible in the aspect of NPV when the raw material cost decreases 30%.

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Abbreviations

IEA:

international energy agency

COG:

coke oven gas

BOFG:

basic oxygen furnace gas

BFG:

blast furnace gas

CCS:

carbon capture & storage

CCU:

carbon capture & utilization

LHV:

lower heating value

DME:

dimethyl ether

SMR:

steam methane reforming

CAGR:

compound annual growth rate

PFD:

process flow diagram

PSA:

pressure swing adsorption

TAC:

total annual cost

TACC:

total annual capital cost

TOC:

total operating cost

NPV:

net present value

HEN:

heat exchanger network

AEA:

aspen energy analyzer

APEA:

aspen process economic analyzer

FCI:

fixed capital investment

CRF:

capital recovery factor

CAPEX:

capital expenditure

OPEX:

operating expenditure

wt:

weight

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. NRF-2021R1F1A106339712). Also, this result was supported by Regional Innovation Strategy (RIS) through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (2021RIS-003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering, University of Ulsan, 93, Daehak-ro, Nam-gu, Ulsan, 44610, Korea

    Seonghun Kim & Dong Hwi Jeong

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  1. Seonghun Kim
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  2. Dong Hwi Jeong
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Correspondence to Dong Hwi Jeong.

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Kim, S., Jeong, D.H. Techno-economic analysis of methanol and ammonia co-producing process using CO2 from blast furnace gas. Korean J. Chem. Eng. 39, 1999–2009 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-022-1129-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-022-1129-9

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