Process Intensification Strategies for Power-to-X Technologies

Sector coupling remains a crucial measure to achieve climate change mitigation targets. Hydrogen and Power-to-X (PtX) products are recognized as major levers to allow the boosting of renewable energy capacities and the consequent use of green electrons in different sectors. In this work, the challen...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inChemEngineering Vol. 6; no. 1; p. 13
Main Authors Cholewa, Thomas, Semmel, Malte, Mantei, Franz, Güttel, Robert, Salem, Ouda
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.02.2022
Subjects
Alternative energy sources
Ammonia
Chemical engineering
Chemical reactors
Chemical synthesis
Climate change
Costs
Dimethyl ether
Electricity
Emissions
Energy consumption
Energy industry
Ethers
Greenhouse gases
oxymethylene ether
Power-to-X
process integration
Process intensification
Raw materials
Renewable resources
Thermal cycling
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Sector coupling remains a crucial measure to achieve climate change mitigation targets. Hydrogen and Power-to-X (PtX) products are recognized as major levers to allow the boosting of renewable energy capacities and the consequent use of green electrons in different sectors. In this work, the challenges presented by the PtX processes are addressed and different process intensification (PI) strategies and their potential to overcome these challenges are reviewed for ammonia (NH3), dimethyl ether (DME) and oxymethylene dimethyl ethers (OME) as three exemplary, major PtX products. PI approaches in this context offer on the one hand the maximum utilization of valuable renewable feedstock and on the other hand simpler production processes. For the three discussed processes a compelling strategy for efficient and ultimately maintenance-free chemical synthesis is presented by integrating unit operations to overcome thermodynamic limitations, and in best cases eliminate the recycle loops. The proposed intensification processes offer a significant reduction of energy consumption and provide an interesting perspective for the future development of PtX technologies.
ISSN:2305-7084
2305-7084
DOI:10.3390/chemengineering6010013