Techno-economic performance analysis of biomass-to-methanol with solid oxide electrolyzer for sustainable bio-methanol production

The analysis of the technical and economic performance of an integrated biomass to methanol and solid oxide electrolysis process (BtM-SOEC) is studied to find more sustainable process of bio-methanol production. The oil palm empty fruit branch (EFB) which is abundant in Thailand is used as biomass feedstock. Modeling of the BtM-SOEC is done using Aspen Plus. For technical aspects, the production rate of oxygen and hydrogen from the SOEC can be enhanced through an appropriate adjustment of the number of cells and cell temperature. The BtM-SOEC offers higher methanol yield and overall efficiency, while consumes less energy than the conventional biomass to methanol process (BtM). The maximum methanol production rate of 0.4995 kmol hr⁻¹ derived from BtM-SOEC is achieved at a number of cells of 325 cells and a cell temperature of 700 °C, at this condition the overall efficiency is 64.79 %. The economic assessment indicates that the conventional BtM and BtM-SOEC are still not economically feasible. However, the conventional BtM is more economically feasible than the BtM-SOEC. The methanol cost of BtM-SOEC can turn out to be economically feasible when renewable electricity cost and SOEC cost decrease substantially. The methanol cost of the BtM-SOEC (620 USD ton⁻¹) can be competitive to that of the BtM (703 USD ton⁻¹) when the cost of input renewable electricity decreases by 80 %. Consequently, this research highlights the potential of BtM-SOEC from agricultural residues for sustainable bio-methanol production in the future market condition that the cost of renewable electricity tends to continuously decrease with the technology development and increased technology adoption and the carbon policy tends to be tightened to relieve global warming.