Methanol Production in the Brayton Cycle

Abstract

This article presents the concept of renewable methanol production in the gas turbine cycle. As part of the work, an analysis was performed, including the impact of changing the parameters in the methanol reactor on the obtained values of power, yield and efficiency of the reactor, and chemical conversion. The aim of this research was to investigate the possibility of integrating the system for the production of renewable methanol and additional production of electricity in the system. The efficiency of the chemical conversion process and the efficiency of the methanol reactor increases with increasing pressure and decreasing temperature. The highest efficiency values, respectively η = 0.4388 and ηR = 0.3649, are obtained for parameters in the reactor equal to 160 °C and 14 MPa. The amount of heat exchanged in all exchangers reached the highest value for 14 MPa and 160 °C and amounted to Q˙ = 2.28 kW. Additionally, it has been calculated that if an additional exchanger is used before the expander (heating the medium to 560 °C), the expander’s power will cover the compressor’s electricity demand.