Technological challenges to make fuels from waste carbon dioxide

In CATCO₂RE we have identified four main technological challenges to make liquid fuel directly from CO₂ . We will mention how  these challenges were overcome by Carbon Recycling  International (CRI), a member of the CATCO2RE advisory committee, and a world leader in producing renewable methanol from carbon dioxide (CO₂).

The Icelandic company CRI operates the ‘George Olah Renewable Methanol Plant’, the largest  CO₂ to methanol plant  in the world,  with an installed capacity of 5000 tons/year. The unique and rare  advantages of Icelandic nature make this plant economically feasible. They take carbon dioxide from a geothermal plant, whose steaming lake was converted into a health spa forty years  ago that is frequented by half a million people a year. The use of renewable methanol from the plant  releases 90% less CO₂ than the use of a comparable amount of energy from fossil fuels.

• Availability of concentrated CO2 sources

CO2 spreads in open air and is found in significantly lower concentrations than those required for the use of CO₂ as a feedstock for industrial applications. CATCO2RE needs to identify opportunities to obtain concentrated CO₂ streams. CRI captures CO₂ from a geothermal plant, which emits highly concentrated streams of CO₂ that require less energy and equipment to separate and capture.

• Efficient conversion of solar energy to chemical energy

When sunlight is converted into electricity, the electricity needs to be immediately consumed. To resolve the storage challenge, the electrical energy can be converted into chemical energy, for instance, with the production of hydrogen. However, the energy efficiency of converting sunlight to electricity is ~20% for commercial solar panels. In CATCO₂RE we need to achieve higher efficiency conversions from solar to electrical to chemical energy. CRI uses  renewable electricity coming from the Icelandic power grid (from hydro, geothermal, and wind  sources), which costs  less than half of what  the industry pays in Germany or Belgium for electricity.

• Massive CO₂ capture and utilization

CO2 is produced on a massive scale: it is the greenhouse gas that most contributes to global warming. To begin  to make an impact on CO₂ emissions, we need to develop processes that can potentially operate with comparable productivity. Only catalytic processes have this potential. On the other hand, the amount of CO₂ that CRI captures is relatively small – roughly one-20th as much as for coal-fired power plants per kilowatt-hour of electricity.

• Reduced energy consumption during the production of methanol

To produce methanol from a mix of CO₂ and molecular hydrogen (H₂) high pressures are needed. These  pressures overcome the thermodynamic limitations present at the temperatures where current methanol synthesis catalysts are active. Our research strategy is to develop catalysts that are active at low temperatures, which would allow process pressures to be reduced.

In CATCO₂RE we will address these challenges and develop a technology with the potential to scale and be implemented on a megaton scale