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Environmental analysis of methanol production from coke oven gas

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Abstract

Coke oven gas (COG) is used to generate energy for the iron-making process by burning; however, from an environmental point of view, it can be converted to methanol (MeOH) for effective utilization. This study designs a large-scale process for the MeOH production from COG based on the validated kinetic studies and performs a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the proposed process. The LCA results are compared with those of the conventional option of COG energy generation combined with primary source-based MeOH production by defining the “cradle-to-gate” system boundary and applying the ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint level methodology using SimaPro 9.0 software. Consequently, the LCA results show that the global warming (GW) and fossil resource scarcity (FRS) of the new COG process are lower than those of the conventional option by 64.8% and 38.0%, respectively. The GW and FRS impacts of the new COG process are dominated by the displacement effect of the heat generation of COG by the primary source. Using wood chips as a primary source could reduce both GW and FRS, leading to a carbon-negative (− 0.51 kg CO2 eq.) COG process.

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Abbreviations

COG:

Coke oven gas

FRS:

Fossil resource scarcity

GW:

Global warming

HC:

Hard coal

HEN:

Heat exchanger network

LCA:

Life cycle assessment

M&E:

Materials and energies

NG:

Natural gas

WC:

Wood chips

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by ‘‘Carbon to X Project’’ through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT, Republic of Korea (2020M3H7A1096361), and Development of Platform for Future New Growth Engines CO2 High-Value Added Commercialization Program through Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (No. 1415164998-R0006251).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, 54896, Korea

    D. Kang & J. Han

  2. School of Semiconductor and Chemical Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, 54896, Korea

    J. Han

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  1. D. Kang
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  2. J. Han
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Contributions

DK took part in investigation, writing—original draft preparation, reviewing, and editing. JH involved in conceptualization, investigation, writing—original draft preparation, reviewing, and editing.

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Correspondence to J. Han.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Editorial responsibility: Q. Aguilar-Virgen.

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Kang, D., Han, J. Environmental analysis of methanol production from coke oven gas. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 19, 5849–5856 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-021-03525-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-021-03525-6

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