Hydrogen/formic acid production from natural gas with zero carbon dioxide emissions

Presented in this work is a novel process flowsheet that co-produces hydrogen and formic acid from natural gas, without emitting any carbon dioxide. This is achieved by employing a reaction cluster that involves commercially available technologies, such as combustion, dry reforming, water-gas shift reaction, pressure-swing adsorption, and formic acid production via methyl formate hydrolysis. Thermodynamic and energetic self-sufficiency analysis imposes operating limits on the proposed process, within which a feasible flowsheet is developed. Heat and power integration analysis reveals that heat engine and heat pump subnetworks are sufficient to meet the flowsheet's energy requirements without violating energetic self-sufficiency constraints. Operating cost analysis reveals a revenue to cost ratio of 8.8, when the system's operating point is chosen to maximize hydrogen production.