Viabilidade técnico-econômica da produção de metanol via hidrogenação do CO2

Abstract

The use of fossil fuels since the industrial revolution has contributed to the increase in the concentration of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere and, consequently, has aggravated global warming. Replacing fossil fuels with renewable ones and using carbon capture and sequestration are alternatives for reducing atmospheric levels of CO2 and mitigating the energy and environmental crises. In this sense, a promising technology is the production of methanol via CO2 hydrogenation, which can use the carbon captured from the atmosphere and transform it into a fuel. Although the CO2 hydrogenation reaction to methanol has been studied for years, improvements are still needed for this technology to be reproduced on a commercial scale. Thus, the present study focuses on understanding what are the main factors that influence the technical-economic viability of large-scale methanol production via CO2 hydrogenation. To this end, the overview of methanol production was analyzed, production methods were conceptualized, and technical-economic aspects of methanol production from the catalytic hydrogenation of CO2 were discussed. The importance of the topic is justified due to its potential impact on mitigating global warming and offering a cleaner and more sustainable fuel. This work consists of a descriptive research based on scientific papers published in several periodicals. It was demonstrated that, despite the advances in this research area, the price of green hydrogen is one of the main obstacles to achieving the economic viability of the process. Moreover, it is necessary to find ways to optimize the process with improvements focused on catalysts and reactors capable of providing high performance and expanding the large-scale production of methanol from the catalytic hydrogenation of carbon dioxide.