Integrating the Reverse Boudouard Reaction for a More Efficient Green Methanol Synthesis from CO2 and Renewable Energy

Green methanol is an important renewable platform chemical that could be used to produce a wide range of sustainable products and fuels. However, it is currently economically unappealing. This high cost is mainly driven by the CO₂ hydrogenation process, which requires 50% more H₂ consumption than the classic fossil-based CO-rich syngas to methanol. To overcome this limitation, here we evaluate the economic and environmental implications of producing green methanol from electrolytic H₂ and captured CO₂ integrated with the reverse Boudouard (RB) reaction. We designed an integrated process based on a standard green methanol plant, adding an RB reactor to reduce CO₂ to CO using biochar prior to the methanol synthesis loop. Combining process simulation with life cycle assessment, we find that integrating both technologies leads to an economic and environmental win-win scenario compared with the base green methanol case. More specifically, production costs are decreased by 5% in an expanded system that assumes the simultaneous production of methanol, biogenic hydrogen, and industrial high-temperature heating under both scenarios. Furthermore, this alternative synthesis shows a reduced carbon footprint of 5% and a 4 to 10% improvement in human health, ecosystems quality, and resource scarcity, revealing no significant probability of associated burden shifting when expanding the system. Finally, when compared with fossil-based methanol, the RB integration makes green methanol competitive when H₂ is available at 3.5–2.0 $/kg, compared to the 2.3–1.3 $/kg required for the standard green methanol configuration. Our results highlight a potentially better alternative to direct CO₂ hydrogenation for green methanol synthesis and, in a broader context, demonstrate the benefits of integrating processes to exploit their synergies.