| dc.description.abstract | The demand for energy in the world is increasing, and with that the need for new energy sources. A problem with fossil fuels as an energy source, is the huge amount of CO2 that comes with it. Consequently, the demand for renewable energy is increasing as well.
One possible source for renewable energy is extracting CO2 from seawater, and using the reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction to produce CO and hydrogenation of the carbon monoxide to produce methanol.
In this thesis, two different designs of methanol production are compared, one where the CO2
is pre-processed in a RWGS reactor, and one that is not. The purpose of this comparison, is to figur out if the technology is feasible, and if the pre-processed design leads to an increase in production of methanol, and if so how much.
The two designs are modeled in Aspen HYSYS V9, and optimized with respect to carbon/hydrogen ratio and temperature. After optimization, a carbon conversion of 98 % and 96 %, for the reverse water gas shift reactor design and the design without the RWGS reactor, respectively. The purity of the product stream is 99 % for the design with the RWGS reactor and 96 % for the design without the RWGS reactor. The feasibility for this technology looks promising, however further investigation into the kinetics and cost estimation is needed. | en |
