Opportunities of integrated systems with CO2 utilization technologies for green fuel & chemicals production in a carbon-constrained society

• We proposed integrated systems with CO2 utilization technologies.
• We analyzed energy efficiency and direct CO2 emissions of the proposed systems.
• Nuclear energy and renewables to hydrogen production technologies were considered.
• Zero CO2 emission can be achieved through CO2 recycling technologies.

With the increasing trend of global climate warming, effective control of CO2 emission has drawn greater attention in the recent years. This has led to a significant challenge on the utilization of high carbon-containing resource such as coal. One of road-maps is the low-carbon and efficient utilization of coal-based resource with the integration of clean or renewable energy resource such as natural & unconventional gas, wind, solar, and even nuclear energy. To meet the demand of low-carbon solutions, the current focus is on the processing of carbon resource into green chemicals and fuels in terms of proposed concepts, one is to minimize the C → CO2 reaction during the processing steps, the other is to recycle CO2 via chemical transformation or the relevant carbon cycle. Based on the concepts above, a series of low carbon conversion technologies are analyzed and discussed for four integrated systems, including (1) integration of natural gas with coal to produce fuels & chemicals, (2) coupling of nuclear energy with coal or CO2 processing, (3) CO2 methane reforming for fuel/chemical production, and (4) integration of solar energy with high temperature CO2/H2O splitting. The results indicate that the integration of fossil resource with non-carbon energy will reduce the CO2 emission significantly; particularly when using carbon in the form of CO2, zero carbon emission can be achieved.

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