Feasibility study of methanol production from different renewable sources and thermo-economic analysis

Since the available electrical energy from the different renewable sources is not constant throughout the year, a time-dependent hierarchical thermo-economic analysis is performed in order to investigate the best plant configuration. The analyses are performed with the W-ECoMP simulation tool (developed by the authors' research group) considering different costs of electricity and different methanol selling prices taking into account the future market forecast. The results for the two plant lay-outs are compared from energetic, economic and environmental point of view for the different renewable energy sources to evaluate the best solution in the Italian scenario.