Dirty It Maybe, But Coal Is Cheap

Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions had reached an all-time high in 2018 and with this current pace, by 2055, CO2 emissions are postulated to exceed the threshold of 3.67 trillion tons of CO2 set by the Paris Climate Change Agreement. It is theorized that this will increase the Earth’s surface temperature by 2°C, triggering changes in our ecosystems by activating extreme weather events which would lead to the melting of glaciers, an increase in sea levels, and cause food shortages. As of now, renewable energy sources are not as effective as fossil fuels for energy production, as latter continue to remain the most energy intensive, easily transportable and cheapest source of energy in the world. As long as this trend continues, it will be hard to overcome the barrier of switching to renewable sources as well as to convince industries to take an action. As a result, research is being done in China in the area of clean coal technologies which seek to use newly developing technologies such as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). However, CCS let alone poses an economical constraint and thus China proposed Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) instead which adds CO2 utilization to storage. The CCUS technology will be particularly useful in the production of methanol, a highly viable source of energy with a plethora of applications in the automotive industry, chemical manufacturing, and as a feedstock for olefins production. Moreover, with the growing demand for methanol in China, the need for a new technology to meet these demands continues and as a result, our goal for this project will be to investigate one such process that produces methanol through the hydrogenation of industrially captured carbon dioxide, which will be utilized as the feedstock to help reduce China’s pollution problem by converting CO2 into methanol.