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Power-to-methane via co-electrolysis of H2O and CO2: The effects of pressurized operation and internal methanation

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  • Wang, Ligang
  • Rao, Megha
  • Diethelm, Stefan
  • Lin, Tzu-En
  • Zhang, Hanfei
  • Hagen, Anke
  • Maréchal, François
  • Van herle, Jan

Abstract

This paper presents a model-based investigation to handle the fundamental issues for the design of co-electrolysis based power-to-methane at the levels of both the stack and system: the role of CO2 in co-electrolysis, the benefits of employing pressurized stack operation and the conditions of promoting internal methanation. Results show that the electrochemical reaction of co-electrolysis is dominated by H2O splitting while CO2 is converted via reverse water-gas shift reaction. Increasing CO2 feed fraction mainly enlarges the concentration and cathode-activation overpotentials. Internal methanation in the stack can be effectively promoted by pressurized operation under high reactant utilization with low current density and large stack cooling. For the operation of a single stack, methane fraction of dry gas at the cathode outlet can reach as high as 30 vol.% (at 30 bar and high flowrate of sweep gas), which is, unfortunately, not preferred for enhancing system efficiency due to the penalty from the pressurization of sweep gas. The number drops down to 15 vol.% (at 15 bar) to achieve the highest system efficiency (at 0.27 A/cm2). The internal methanation can serve as an effective internal heat source to maintain stack temperature (thus enhancing electrochemistry), particularly at a small current density. This enables the co-electrolysis based power-to-methane to achieve higher efficiency than the steam-electrolysis based (90% vs 86% on higher heating value, or 83% vs 79% on lower heating value without heat and converter losses).

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  • Wang, Ligang & Rao, Megha & Diethelm, Stefan & Lin, Tzu-En & Zhang, Hanfei & Hagen, Anke & Maréchal, François & Van herle, Jan, 2019. "Power-to-methane via co-electrolysis of H2O and CO2: The effects of pressurized operation and internal methanation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 1432-1445.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:250:y:2019:i:c:p:1432-1445
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.05.098
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    Cited by:

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    2. Sonia Dell’Aversano & Carlo Villante & Katia Gallucci & Giuseppina Vanga & Andrea Di Giuliano, 2024. "E-Fuels: A Comprehensive Review of the Most Promising Technological Alternatives towards an Energy Transition," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-43, August.
    3. Qi, Meng & Park, Jinwoo & Landon, Robert Stephen & Kim, Jeongdong & Liu, Yi & Moon, Il, 2022. "Continuous and flexible Renewable-Power-to-Methane via liquid CO2 energy storage: Revisiting the techno-economic potential," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    4. Wang, Ligang & Chen, Ming & Küngas, Rainer & Lin, Tzu-En & Diethelm, Stefan & Maréchal, François & Van herle, Jan, 2019. "Power-to-fuels via solid-oxide electrolyzer: Operating window and techno-economics," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 174-187.
    5. Wang, Ligang & Zhang, Yumeng & Pérez-Fortes, Mar & Aubin, Philippe & Lin, Tzu-En & Yang, Yongping & Maréchal, François & Van herle, Jan, 2020. "Reversible solid-oxide cell stack based power-to-x-to-power systems: Comparison of thermodynamic performance," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    6. Zhang, Hanfei & Desideri, Umberto, 2020. "Techno-economic optimization of power-to-methanol with co-electrolysis of CO2 and H2O in solid-oxide electrolyzers," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    7. Choe, Changgwon & Cheon, Seunghyun & Gu, Jiwon & Lim, Hankwon, 2022. "Critical aspect of renewable syngas production for power-to-fuel via solid oxide electrolysis: Integrative assessment for potential renewable energy source," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    8. Pérez-Trujillo, Juan Pedro & Elizalde-Blancas, Francisco & McPhail, Stephen J. & Della Pietra, Massimiliano & Bosio, Barbara, 2020. "Preliminary theoretical and experimental analysis of a Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell operating in reversible mode," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).
    9. Wang, Ligang & Zhang, Yumeng & Li, Chengzhou & Pérez-Fortes, Mar & Lin, Tzu-En & Maréchal, François & Van herle, Jan & Yang, Yongping, 2020. "Triple-mode grid-balancing plants via biomass gasification and reversible solid-oxide cell stack: Concept and thermodynamic performance," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    10. Fózer, Dániel & Volanti, Mirco & Passarini, Fabrizio & Varbanov, Petar Sabev & Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír & Mizsey, Péter, 2020. "Bioenergy with carbon emissions capture and utilisation towards GHG neutrality: Power-to-Gas storage via hydrothermal gasification," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    11. Zhong, Like & Yao, Erren & Zou, Hansen & Xi, Guang, 2022. "Thermodynamic and economic analysis of a directly solar-driven power-to-methane system by detailed distributed parameter method," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    12. Chauvy, Remi & Dubois, Lionel & Lybaert, Paul & Thomas, Diane & De Weireld, Guy, 2020. "Production of synthetic natural gas from industrial carbon dioxide," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    13. Jalili, Mohammad & Ghazanfari Holagh, Shahriyar & Chitsaz, Ata & Song, Jian & Markides, Christos N., 2023. "Electrolyzer cell-methanation/Sabatier reactors integration for power-to-gas energy storage: Thermo-economic analysis and multi-objective optimization," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).
    14. Wehrle, Lukas & Schmider, Daniel & Dailly, Julian & Banerjee, Aayan & Deutschmann, Olaf, 2022. "Benchmarking solid oxide electrolysis cell-stacks for industrial Power-to-Methane systems via hierarchical multi-scale modelling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).
    15. Li, Zheng & Zhang, Hao & Xu, Haoran & Xuan, Jin, 2021. "Advancing the multiscale understanding on solid oxide electrolysis cells via modelling approaches: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).

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