TY - GEN A1 - Baena-Moreno, Francisco Manuel A1 - González-Castaño, Miriam A1 - Arellano-Garcia, Harvey A1 - Ramirez Reina, Tomas T1 - Exploring profitability of bioeconomy paths: Dimethyl ether from biogas as case study T2 - Energy N2 - Herein a novel path is analysed for its economic viability to synergize the production of biomethane and dimethyl ether from biogas. We conduct a profitability analysis based on the discounted cash flow method. The results revealed an unprofitable process with high cost/revenues ratios. Profitable scenarios would be reached by setting prohibitive DME prices (1983–5566 €/t) or very high feed-in tariffs subsidies (95.22 €/MWh in the best case scenario). From the cost reduction side, the analysis revealed the need of reducing investment costs. For this purpose, we propose a percentage of investment as incentive scheme. Although the size increase benefits cost/revenues ratio, only the 1000 m3/h biogas plant size will reach profitability if 90% of the investment is subsidized. A sensitivity analysis to check the influence of some important economical parameters is also included. Overall this study evidences the big challenge that our society faces in the way towards a circular economy. KW - Biomethane production KW - Biogas upgrading KW - CO2 utilization KW - Green energy production KW - Waste valorization KW - Dimethyl ether Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2021.120230 SN - 0360-5442 VL - 225 ER - TY - GEN A1 - González-Castaño, Miriam A1 - Hani Kour, M. A1 - González-Arias, Judith A1 - Baena-Moreno, Francisco Manuel A1 - Arellano-Garcia, Harvey T1 - Promoting bioeconomy routes: From food waste to green biomethane. A profitability analysis based on a real case study in eastern Germany T2 - Journal of Environmental Management N2 - Profitability studies are needed to establish the potential pathways required for viable biomethane production in the Brandenburg region of Germany. This work study the profitability of a potential biomethane production plant in the eastern German region of Brandenburg, through a specific practical scenario with data collected from a regional biogas plant located in Alteno (Schradenbiogas GmbH & Co. KG). Several parameters with potential economic influence such as distance of the production point to the grid, waste utilization percentage, and investment, were analyzed. The results illustrate a negative overall net present value with the scenario of no governmental investment, even when considering trading the CO2 obtained throughout the process. Subsidies needed to reach profitability varied with distance from 13.5 €/MWh to 19.3 €/MWh. For a fixed distance of 15 kms, the importance of percentage of waste utilization was examined. Only 100% of waste utilization and 75% of waste utilization would reach profitability under a reasonable subsidies scheme (16.3 and 18.8 €/MWh respectively). Concerning the importance of investment, a subsidized investment of at least 70% is demanded for positive net present values. Besides, the sensitivity analysis remarks the energy consumption of the biogas upgrading stage, the electricity price, and the energy consumption of biogas production as major parameters to be tackled for the successful implementation of biogas upgrading plants. The results here obtained invite to ponder about potential strategies to further improve the economic viability of this kind of renewable projects. In this line, using the CO2 separated to produce added-value chemicals can be an interesting alternative. KW - Biomethane production KW - Biogas upgrading KW - Green energy KW - Governmental incentives KW - Waste valorization Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113788 SN - 0301-4797 VL - 300 ER - TY - GEN A1 - González-Arias, Judith A1 - Baena-Moreno, Francisco Manuel A1 - González-Castaño, Miriam A1 - Arellano-Garcia, Harvey T1 - Economic approach for CO2 valorization from hydrothermal carbonization gaseous streams via reverse water-gas shift reaction T2 - Fuel N2 - In this work the economic performance of valorizing the gaseous stream coming from hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) of olive tree pruning is presented as a novel strategy to improve the competitiveness of HTC. The valorization of the commonly disregarded gaseous stream produced in this thermochemical treatment was proposed via the Reverse Water–Gas Shift reaction. This allows to obtain syngas for selling and therefore improving the overall economic performance of the process. To this end, three plant sizes were selected (312.5, 625 and 1250 kg/h of biomass processing). The parameters with a higher share in the total cost distribution along with the revenues from the hydrochar and the syngas selling were further evaluated. The results evidenced that with the assumptions taken, the overall process is still not profitable. To reach profitability, syngas selling prices between 2.2 and 3.4 €/m3 are needed, revealing that this proposal is not economically attractive. Alternatively, a lack of competitiveness in the current market is revealed with hydrochar selling prices between 0.41 and 0.64 €/kg to make the project profitable. The catalyst cost, sharing approximately 20% of the total cost, is the parameter with the highest impact in the total economics of the process. The second one is the hydrogen price production, representing almost 16% of the total. Investment subsidies are also examined as a potential tool to cover part of the initial investment. These results evidenced that further efforts and measures are needed to push forward in the path towards circular economy societies. KW - Hydrothermal carbonization KW - CO2 waste valorization KW - Reverse water gas shift KW - Profitability analysis Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2021.123055 SN - 0016-2361 VL - 313 SP - 1 EP - 7 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Medina Méndez, Juan Ali A1 - González-Castaño, Miriam A1 - Baena-Moreno, Francisco Manuel A1 - Arellano-Garcia, Harvey ED - Kmiotek, M. ED - Kordos, A. T1 - CO2 methanation: on the modeling of reacting laminar flows in structured Ni/MgAl2O4 catalysts T2 - XXV Fluid Mechanics Conference, Rzeszów, Poland, 7-9 September 2022, Book of Abstracts Y1 - 2022 SN - 978-83-7934-590-8 SP - 98 EP - 100 PB - Publishing House of Rzeszów University of Technology CY - Rzeszów, Poland ER - TY - GEN A1 - Medina Méndez, Juan Ali A1 - González-Castaño, Miriam A1 - Baena-Moreno, Francisco Manuel A1 - Arellano-Garcia, Harvey T1 - CO2 methanation: on the modeling of reacting laminar flows in structured Ni/MgAl2O4 catalysts T2 - Journal of Physics: Conference Series Y1 - 2022 UR - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/2367/1/012015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/2367/1/012015 IS - 2367 PB - IOP Publishing ER - TY - GEN A1 - Baena-Moreno, Francisco Manuel A1 - Cid-Castillo, N. A1 - Arellano-Garcia, Harvey A1 - Ramirez Reina, Tomas T1 - Towards emission free steel manufacturing – Exploring the advantages of a CO2 methanation unit to minimize CO2 emissions T2 - Science of The Total Environment N2 - This paper demonstrates the benefits of incorporating CO2 utilisation through methanation in the steel industry. This approach allows to produce synthetic methane, which can be recycled back into the steel manufacturing process as fuel and hence saving the consumption of natural gas. To this end, we propose a combined steel-making and CO2 utilisation prototype whose key units (shaft furnace, reformer and methanation unit) have been modelled in Aspen Plus V8.8. Particularly, the results showed an optimal performance of the shaft furnace at 800°C and 6 bar, as well as 1050°C and atmospheric pressure for the reformer unit. Optimal results for the methanation reactor were observed at 350°C. Under these optimal conditions, 97.8% of the total CO2 emissions could be mitigated from a simplified steel manufacturing scenario and 89.4% of the natural gas used in the process could be saved. A light economic approach is also presented, revealing that the process could be profitable with future technologic developments, natural gas prices and forthcoming increases of CO2 emissions taxes. Indeed, the cash-flow can be profitable (325 k€) under the future costs: methanation operational cost at 0.105 €/Nm³; electrolysis operational cost at 0.04 €kWh, natural gas price at 32 €/MWh; and CO2 penalty at 55€/MWh. Hence this strategy is not only environmentally advantageous but also economically appealing and could represent an interesting route to contribute towards steel-making decarbonisation. Y1 - 2021 UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969721018441?via%3Dihub U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146776 SN - 1879-1026 SN - 0048-9697 VL - 781 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Baena-Moreno, Francisco Manuel A1 - González-Castaño, Miriam A1 - Navarro de Miguel, Juan Carlos A1 - Miah, Kamal Uddin Mohammad A1 - Ossenbrink, Ralf A1 - Odriozola, José Antonio A1 - Arellano-Garcia, Harvey T1 - Stepping toward Efficient Microreactors for CO2 Methanation: 3D Printed Gyroid Geometry T2 - ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering N2 - This work presents a comparative study towards the development of efficient micro-reactors based on 3D-printed structures. Thus, the study evaluates the influence of the metal substrate geometry on the performance of structured catalysts for the CO2 methanation reaction. For this purpose, 0.5%Ru–15%Ni/MgAl2O4 catalyst is wash coated over two different micro-monolithic metal substrates: a conventional parallel channel honeycomb structure and a novel 3D-printed structure with a complex gyroid geometry. The effect of the metal substrate geometry is analyzed for several CO2 sources including ideal flue gas atmospheres, the presence of residual CH4 and CO in the flue gas, as well as simulated biogas sources. The advantages of the gyroid-3D complex geometries over the honeycomb structures are shown for all evaluated conditions, providing at the best-case scenario a 14% improvement of CO2 conversion. Moreover, this contribution shows that systematically tailoring geometrical features of structured catalysts becomes an effective strategy to achieve improved catalysts performances independent of the flue gas composition. By enhancing the transport processes and the gas-catalyst interactions, the employed gyroid 3D metal substrates enable boosted CO2 conversions and greater CH4 selectivity within diffusional controlled regimes. KW - CO2 methanation KW - gyroid geometry KW - CH4 selectivity KW - gyroid-3D complex Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.1c01980 SN - 2168-0485 VL - 9 IS - 24 SP - 8198 EP - 8206 ER - TY - GEN A1 - González-Castaño, Miriam A1 - Baena-Moreno, Francisco Manuel A1 - Navarro de Miguel, Juan Carlos A1 - Miah, Kamal Uddin Mohammad A1 - Arroyo-Torralvo, Fátima A1 - Ossenbrink, Ralf A1 - Odriozola, José Antonio A1 - Benzinger, Walther A1 - Hensel, Andreas A1 - Wenka, Achim A1 - Arellano-García, Harvey T1 - 3D-printed structured catalysts for CO2 methanation reaction: Advancing of gyroid-based geometries T2 - Energy Conversion and Management N2 - This work investigates the CO2 methanation rate of structured catalysts by tuning the geometry of 3D-printed metal Fluid Guiding Elements (FGEs) structures based on periodically variable pseudo-gyroid geometries. The enhanced performance showed by the structured catalytic systems is mostly associated with the capability of the FGEs substrate geometries for efficient heat usages. Thus, variations on the channels diameter resulted in ca. 25% greater CO2 conversions values at intermediate temperature ranges. The highest void fraction evidenced in the best performing catalyst (3D-1) favored the radial heat transfer and resulted in significantly enhanced catalytic activity, achieving close to equilibrium (75%) conversions at 400 ◦C and 120 mL/min. For the 3D-1 catalyst, a mathematical model based on an experimental design was developed thus enabling the estimation of its behavior as a function of temperature, spatial velocity, hydrogen to carbon dioxide (H2/CO2) ratio, and inlet CO2 concentration. Its optimal operating conditions were established under 3 different scenarios: 1) no restrictions, 2) minimum H2:CO2 ratios, and 3) minimum temperatures and H2/CO2 ratio. For instance, for the lattest scenario, the best CO2 methanation conditions require operating at 431 ◦C, 200 mL/min, H2/CO2 = 3 M ratio, and inlet CO2 concentration = 10 %. KW - 3D-printing KW - Triply periodic minimal surfaces KW - Fluid guiding elements KW - CO2 methanation KW - Structured catalysts KW - Experiment design Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2022.115464 SN - 2590-1745 VL - 258 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Gonzalez-Arias, Judith A1 - Torres-Sempere, Guillermo A1 - Gonzalez-Castano, Miriam A1 - Baena-Moreno, Francisco Manuel A1 - Ramirez Reina, Tomas T1 - Hydrochar and synthetic natural gas co-production for a full circular economy implementation via hydrothermal carbonization and methanation: An economic approach T2 - Journal of Environmental Sciences N2 - Herein we study the economic performance of hydrochar and synthetic natural gas co-production from olive tree pruning. The process entails a combination of hydrothermal carbonization and methanation. In a previous work, we evidenced that standalone hydrochar production via HTC results unprofitable. Hence, we propose a step forward on the process design by implementing a methanation, adding value to the gas effluent in an attempt to boost the overall process techno-economic aspects. Three different plant capacities were analyzed (312.5, 625 and 1250 kg/hr). The baseline scenarios showed that, under the current circumstances, our circular economy strategy in unprofitable. An analysis of the revenues shows that hydrochar selling price have a high impact on NPV and subsidies for renewable coal production could help to boost the profitability of the process. On the contrary, the analysis for natural gas prices reveals that prices 8 times higher than the current ones in Spain must be achieved to reach profitability. This seems unlikely even under the presence of a strong subsidy scheme. The costs analysis suggests that a remarkable electricity cost reduction or electricity consumption of the HTC stage could be a potential strategy to reach profitability scenarios. Furthermore, significant reduction of green hydrogen production costs is deemed instrumental to improve the economic performance of the process. These results show the formidable techno-economic challenge that our society faces in the path towards circular economy societies. Y1 - 2023 UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1001074223001766 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jes.2023.04.019 SN - 1878-7320 VL - Vol. 140(2024) SP - 69 EP - 78 ER -