How to make the production of methanol/DME “GREENER“—Integration of wind power with modern coal chemical industry

The urgency and necessity of alternative fuels give an impetus to the development of modern coal chemical industry. Coal-based methanol/DME is the key element of this industry. Wind power, whose installed capacity increased at a rate of more than 100% in recent years, has the most developed technologies in renewable energy. However, there still exist many unsolved problems in wind power for on-grid utilization. A new integrated system which combines coal-based methanol/DME production with wind power is proposed in this paper. In this system, wind power is used to electrolyze water to produce H2 and O2. TheO2 is fed to the gasifier as gasification agent. The H2 is mixed with the CO-rich gas to adjust the H2/CO to an appropriate ratio for methanol synthesis. In comparison with conventional coal-based methanol/DME system, the proposed system omits the expensive and energy-consuming ASU and greatly reduces the water gas shift process, which brings both advantages in the utilization of all raw materials and significant mitigation of CO2 emission. This system will be attractive in the regions of China which have abundant wind and coal resources.