Carbon dioxide hydrogenation to methanol: Process simulation and optimization studies

This work investigates process simulation and optimization as an efficient approach to mitigate global warming using carbon dioxide hydrogenation to methanol. Modeling and simulation of hydrogenation to methanol were studied using Aspen Plus V8. Cu/ZnO/Al₂O₃ catalyst is used to optimize parameters to enhance the reduction of CO₂ to methanol. The effect of temperature, pressure, and the feed flow rate on CO₂ conversion and CH₃OH yield was reported. Response surface methodology (RSM) is used to analyze the chemical equilibrium of the CH₃OH production process to obtain an optimal way of assuring a relatively higher CO₂ conversion and CH₃OH production rate. It helps to evaluate the optimum temperature, pressure, andH₂/CO₂ molar ratio to achieve maximum CO₂ conversion and CH₃OH yield. The impact of conversion and CH₃OH yield was evaluated using surface plots. The RSM studies show optimized conditions for conversion and CH₃OH yield at a temperature of 210 °C, a pressure of 55 bar, and a H₂/CO₂ concentration of 1:5. The anticipated CO₂ conversion and CH₃OH yield were 87.56% and 11.22%, respectively, whereas the simulation gave CO₂ conversion of 87.65% and CH₃OH yield of 11.39%. The generated quadratic model accurately predicts carbon dioxide conversion to methanol. The applicability of the model to forecast CO₂ conversion and CH₃OH yield is supported by the agreement between the simulated and expected results. This work can be considered a possible solution to overcome the thermodynamic difficulty by providing a higher CO₂ conversion and would be beneficial for further investigation in industrial process.