Process analysis of an integrated gasification and methanol synthesis process for bio-methanol production from untreated and torrefied biomass

Abstract

The integrated biomass gasification and methanol synthesis process is investigated in this study. The different types of biomass i.e., the untreated and torrefied biomass at 250 oC (TB250) and torrefied biomass at 300 oC (TB300) are considered feedstock. The influence of torrefying temperature on the yield and composition of raw syngas derived gasifier is investigated. The biomass processed torrefaction leads to an increase in syngas and methanol yields. Moreover, the bio-methanol production process using torrefied biomass releases lower amount of CO2 than the raw one. An energy analysis is also performed using overall energy consumption and cold gas efficiency (CGE) of the integrated process as the indicators. The TB300 offers better performance in methanol production and CO2 emission. However, it requires high energy for methanol synthesis unit and offers low CGE.