Scoping Study of Methanol Production From CO2 with Nuclear Electrolysis H2

A scoping study of system costs for producing methanol from CO₂ and H₂ using low-carbon electricity to supply the hydrogen from commercial electrolysis produced methanol via:

CO₂ + 3H₂ ➝ CH₃OH + H₂O

Assuming low-carbon electricity at $75/MW, electrolysis delivers hydrogen at $5/kg and the production of methanol in an $98 MM facility (or $128K per tonne of daily production for an 850,000 tonnes/yr boiler plate — and 800,000 actual tonnes/yr facility) should come to $1,000/tonne or $2.91/gallon of methanol. While process improvements are possible, this base case estimate employs commercially deployed equipment. Current high-CO₂ emission methanol costs about $50/tonne according to Lurgi.

Since methanol is typically considered to have ~60% of the energy value of gasoline in automotive use this comes to $4.64/gallon of gasoline equivalent. Were the methanol then to be converted to either DME or gasoline, the cost per gallon would approximately double, and the attendant CO₂ emissions would also need to be managed.