Carbon Recycling International
Carbon Recycling International (CRI) is an Icelandic company that produces "green methanol , also known as e-methanol."
history
Carbon Recycling International (CRI) was founded in Iceland in 2006 . The founders were Fridrik Jonsson, Art Shulenberger, Oddur Ingolfsson and KC Tran, who were supported by the municipality of Grindavík, the Mannvit Engineering company and the Icelandic Innovation Center. A pioneering process was developed by these researchers to convert carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from industrial sources into liquid fuel. All phases of the process: research, technology development, construction, construction and operation were implemented in order to cope with the path from laboratory development to operation of a demonstration plant.
In 2011 the first plant known as the George Olah plant was completed. It was named after the Nobel Prize winner George Andrew Olah . It was the world's first production of a liquid renewable transport fuel from non-biological energy sources.
In 2015, CRI expanded the facility to more than 5 million liters per year.
In May 2019, as part of the EU research project MefCO 2 (methanol fuel from CO 2 , English methanol fuel from CO 2 ), a demonstration plant was put into operation at the Niederaussem power plant in Germany with a daily production capacity of one tonne of methanol using CRI's technology taken.
Green methanol or e-methanol
Green methanol is obtained from CO 2 and hydrogen from renewable energies and can be mixed in gasoline or processed as a chemical raw material. Green methanol is also the raw material for biodiesel production . In so-called Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV, sometimes also called Fuel Flexible Vehicle) - in German about "fuel adaptable vehicle" - is a vehicle that can be operated with the alcohols methanol and ethanol and any mixtures of these three fuels in addition to gasoline can.
description
The George Olah plant initially had a capacity of 1.3 million liters per year and is located near the Blue Lagoon and the Svartsengi power station . All of the energy used in the facility comes from the Icelandic electricity grid, which is generated from hydropower and geothermal energy. The plant uses the electricity to generate hydrogen in an electrolyser . It is converted into methanol in a catalytic reaction with carbon dioxide (CO 2 ).
The CO 2 is obtained from gases released by a geothermal power plant next to the CRI system. The origin of the flue gas is geothermal steam emissions.
In 2015, CRI expanded the facility to more than 5 million liters per year. The plant now recycles 5.5 thousand tons of carbon dioxide per year from the geothermal power plant that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. The alcohol obtained here is called Vulcanol. This is CRI's brand name for the green methanol, which is produced from carbon dioxide and hydrogen from renewable energy sources (hydropower, geothermal energy, wind and solar energy). Hydrogen was produced by electrolysis of water with electricity from renewable energy sources (hydropower, geothermal energy and wind). No toxic by-products are produced during production as the only chemicals released are oxygen and water. The green methanol obtained from the plant comes onto the market. Here it is mixed with gasoline or used to produce FAME (biodiesel = fatty acid methyl ester).
application
According to the DNV-GL study, around 21% of the fuels used for ship propulsion will come from renewable sources in 2050. In addition to electricity, there are electricity-based fuels such as e-methanol and e-ethanol. In relation to the distance traveled, overseas traffic will consume 7.7 EJ and short-haul traffic 4.3 EJ. The study is based on an analysis of global shipping traffic based on ship movement data from the automatic identification system (AIS). In Europe, only the CRI plant is currently able to generate large amounts of e-methanol from renewable electricity. Therefore, several R&D projects deal with the topic.
Research projects
The following research projects are currently being carried out on this subject, also known as power-to-liquid .
SPIRE
In the EU research program SPIRE, an innovative pilot plant for renewable fuels is being examined by Carbon Recycling International from 2015 to 2018 in cooperation with industrial partners from Germany, Spain and Belgium as part of Horizon 2020 . The project includes the planning, construction and testing to demonstrate the use of intermittent renewable energy sources and CO 2 for the production of sustainable fuels and chemicals, has a budget of 11 million euros and is partly funded by the EU research program .
The project partners include:
- i-deals (Spain): Coordination, dissemination & exploitation.
- National Institute of Chemistry Slovenia (Slovenia): Catalysis and reaction engineering.
- Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Europe (Germany): System integrator.
- Cardiff Catalysis Institute (UK): Research in catalyst synthesis.
- Carbon Recycling International (Iceland): CO 2 to methanol technology developer.
- DIME - University of Genoa (Italy): Thermo-economic analysis and process optimization.
- Hydrogenics Europe (Belgium): Electrolyser technology developer.
- University of Duisburg Essen (Germany): CO 2 capture technology provider.
FReSMe
The FReSMe project is also running as part of the EU Horizon 2020 program and is supported with € 11.4 million. It is carried out in a Swedish steel mill in Luleå with the support of the Swerea MEFOS research network.
The CO 2 generated during steel production is to be recycled into methanol using the synthesis process developed by CRI described above and used as a liquid fuel by one of the consortium partners, the Swedish ferry company Stena Line , as fuel for ships. Stena Line operates the world's first methanol-powered ferry, the Stena Germanica .
The project partners include:
- Carbon Recycling International (Iceland)
- Swerea (Swedish Research Institute for Industrial Renewal and Sustainable Growth)
- MEFOS, Swedish Research Institute
- SSAB Svenskt Stål AB is a Swedish steel group
- Tata Steel Netherlands,
- Kisuma Chemicals (Netherlands),
- Array Industries (Netherlands)
- Energy research Center of the Netherlands ECN
Awards
An industry jury from the International Energy Globe selected Carbon Recycling International with its Emissions-to-Liquids (ETL) technology as the winner of the National Energy Globe Iceland Award in 2018.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Saving the climate with exhaust gas. Press release 075/2016. Federal Ministry of Education and Research, June 27, 2016, accessed on October 15, 2018 .
- ↑ Niederaussem is the scene of important technological advances. RWE Power AG, May 28, 2019, accessed on October 25, 2020 .
- ↑ World's Largest CO2 Methanol plant. Carbon Recycling International, accessed October 15, 2018 .
- ↑ Maritime forecast to 2050. DNV GL, accessed on October 16, 2018 .
- ↑ Nils Aldag: Role for e-Fuels in EU transport? Industry perspective on future developments. (PDF, 877 kB) January 12, 2018, accessed October 16, 2018 .
- ↑ MefCO2 (Methanol fuel from CO 2 ) - Synthesis of methanol from captured carbon dioxide using surplus electricity. Spire, accessed October 15, 2018 .
- ↑ FReSMe. Retrieved July 11, 2019 .
- ↑ CORDIS | European Commission. Retrieved July 11, 2019 .
- ^ Carbon Recycling International wins the National Energy Globe Iceland Award. July 2, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018 .